-ine
French, suffix/in/
-ine is spelled I-N-E (3 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written French, the 44,936th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). -ine is a French feminine suffix meaning “-ine; forms chemical substances” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a female equivalent of -in; forms female agent nouns. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Suffixe nominal des substances chimiques”.
What does -ine mean in English?
suffix
- 1
feminine-ine; forms chemical substances
café m (“coffee”) + -ine → caféine f (“caffeine”)
- 2
feminineforms diminutives
escalope f (“escalope (cut of meat)”) + -ine → escalopine f (“small escalope”)
- 3
femininefemale equivalent of -in; forms female agent nouns
pèler(in) m (“pilgrim”) + -ine → pèlerine f (“female pilgrim”)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
suffix: 1. Suffixe nominal des substances chimiques. 2. Suffixe des alcaloïdes. 3. Suffixe des acides aminés. 4. Suffixe de nombreuses protéines
noun: 1. Numéro d’identification des étudiants.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce -ine?
- /in/
- \in\
- \i.ɛn.ø\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to -ine
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is -ine in French?
-ine appears about once in every 2 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).