prothesis
/ˈpɹɔθəsɪs/noun
prothesis is spelled P-R-O-T-H-E-S-I-S: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 47 million words in written English, the 211,986th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, prothesis means “The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Greek (via Latin)…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of prothesis is protheses.
How many letters and syllables are in prothesis?
| Letters | 9: P-R-O-T-H-E-S-I-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 47 million words; the 211,986th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is prothesis?
Prothesis appears about once in every 47 million words in written English, the 211,986th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce prothesis?
- UK /ˈpɹɒθəsɪs/
- US /ˈpɹɔθəsɪs/
- US /ˈpɹɑθəsɪs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-prothesis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of prothesis
- protheses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does prothesis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in Spanish esfera from Greek (via Latin) sphaera (“sphere”) (without prothesis the word would have become *sfera).
- 2
The preparation and preliminary oblation of the Eucharistic bread and wine in the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches.
- 3
Credence table.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Prothesis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the addition of a sound or syllable at the beginning of a word without changing :
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does prothesis come from?
From Late Latin prothesis, prosthesis, alteration (dropping the ‘s’) from Ancient Greek πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “addition, augmentation”), (English prosthesis) from προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “to add”), from πρός (prós, “towards”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to place”), from Proto-Indo-European *próti, *préti + *dʰédʰeh₁- (“to be putting, to be placing”). However, often confused for a descendant of the Ancient Greek word πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a preposing, preposition”) (without the σ (s)), which is instead the source of a different term – see alternative etymology, below.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).