Suffixes

30+

-able, -ible, -ile [ADJ]

CAPABLE OF, FIT FOR, TENDING TO, able to be — malleable, tractable, culpable, amenable, ineffable, implacable, irascible, plausible, docile, volatile, ductile, servile

-acious, -icious, -ious, -ous, -ose, -ulent, -olent [ADJ]

FULL OF, ABOUNDING IN, characterized by — tenacious, mendacious, pugnacious, capacious, avaricious, verbose, grandiose, garrulous, corpulent, fraudulent, redolent, truculent

-acity, -ocity, -ity, -ty, -tude, -itude [NOUN]

STATE, QUALITY, or DEGREE OF (abstract noun) — tenacity, veracity, audacity, ferocity, alacrity, levity, probity, rectitude, fortitude, lassitude, plenitude, pulchritude, magnitude

-acy, -cy, -ance, -ancy, -ence, -ency, -ness, -ship, -dom, -hood [NOUN]

STATE, CONDITION, or QUALITY OF BEING — fallacy, obstinacy, intimacy, celibacy, temperance, forbearance, complacency, reticence, benevolence, indolence, stewardship, martyrdom

-age, -al, -ment, -ure, -ion, -tion, -sion, -ation [NOUN]

ACT, PROCESS, or RESULT OF (turns a verb into a noun) — patronage, pillage, rebuttal, appraisal, upheaval, predicament, abatement, aggrandizement, discernment, censure, disclosure, retribution, coercion, contrition, derision

-al, -ial, -ic, -ical, -ac, -ar, -ary, -ory, -ine, -ile [ADJ]

RELATING TO, OF THE NATURE OF, pertaining to — primal, bestial, laconic, caustic, cyclical, cardiac, lunar, sedentary, illusory, feline, bovine, puerile, juvenile

-an, -ian, -ant, -ent, -er, -or, -ar, -ist, -eer, -ard, -ster, -ee [NOUN]

ONE WHO DOES, one who is, or (with -ee) ONE WHO RECEIVES — partisan, thespian, supplicant, mendicant, adherent, benefactor, scholar, polemicist, profiteer, dullard, sluggard, prankster, nominee, devotee

-ant, -ent [ADJ]

PERFORMING, BEING, in the act of (present-participle sense) — belligerent, complacent, reticent, indolent, incumbent, resurgent, insurgent, redolent, itinerant, defiant

-arch, -archy, -crat, -cracy [NOUN]

RULER, RULE, GOVERNMENT, power — monarch, patriarch, oligarchy, anarchy, hierarchy, autocrat, plutocracy, meritocracy, bureaucracy, technocrat

-ate [VERB]

TO MAKE, TO CAUSE, to act upon — alleviate, exacerbate, obfuscate, placate, vindicate, castigate, extricate, abrogate, mitigate

-ate, -ite [ADJ / NOUN]

HAVING, characterized by; OR an office / one holding it — passionate, temperate, obdurate, inveterate, effeminate; magistrate, electorate, potentate, erudite, favorite

-cide, -cidal [NOUN/ADJ]

KILLER, KILLING, cutting down — homicide, genocide, regicide, fratricide, patricide, insecticide, suicidal

-cule, -ule, -icle, -let, -ette, -ling [NOUN]

SMALL, LITTLE (diminutive) — molecule, minuscule, globule, particle, cuticle, booklet, statuette, coquette, duckling, fledgling, underling

-en, -fy, -ify, -ize, -ise [VERB]

TO MAKE, TO CAUSE TO BECOME, to render — chasten, enliven, hearten, mollify, rectify, pacify, nullify, vilify, ostracize, jeopardize, galvanize, temporize

-escent, -esce, -escence [ADJ/VERB]

BECOMING, BEGINNING TO BE, in the process of — obsolescent, convalescent, effervescent, incandescent, evanescent, quiescent, coalesce, acquiesce, efflorescence

-esque, -oid, -ish, -like [ADJ]

RESEMBLING, IN THE STYLE OF, somewhat — grotesque, picturesque, statuesque, Kafkaesque, humanoid, ovoid, spheroid, mawkish, brackish, waspish

-ferous, -fer [ADJ/NOUN]

BEARING, CARRYING, PRODUCING — vociferous (voice-carrying → loud), odoriferous, coniferous, pestiferous, somniferous, splendiferous, aquifer

-fic, -ficent, -fy [ADJ]

MAKING, CAUSING, producing — soporific (sleep-making), horrific, prolific, terrific, honorific, beneficent, magnificent, munificent

-fuge, -fugal [NOUN/ADJ]

DRIVING AWAY, FLEEING, repelling — subterfuge (a fleeing under → evasive trick), centrifugal, refuge, vermifuge, febrifuge

-gam-, -gamy, -gamous [NOUN/ADJ]

MARRIAGE, UNION, joining — monogamy, polygamy, bigamy, exogamy, misogamist, gamete

-gen, -genic, -genous, -geny, -gony [NOUN/ADJ]

PRODUCING, BORN OF, ORIGIN, kind — pathogen, carcinogenic, indigenous, homogeneous, heterogeneous, progeny, cosmogony, engender

-gram, -graph, -graphy, -gram- [NOUN]

WRITING, DRAWING, RECORDING — epigram, anagram, monograph, calligraphy, cartography, demography, hagiography, epigraph

-ic, -ics, -ism [NOUN]

DOCTRINE, BELIEF, PRACTICE, or CONDITION — stoicism, altruism, asceticism, dogmatism, nepotism, jingoism, solipsism, anachronism, aphorism

-ive, -ative, -itive [ADJ]

TENDING TO, HAVING THE NATURE OF, inclined to — pensive, furtive, restive, plaintive, punitive, derisive, pejorative, tentative, meditative

-less [ADJ]

WITHOUT, LACKING, free from — relentless, guileless, artless, feckless, dauntless, ruthless, listless, blameless

-logy, -ology, -logue, -loquy, -logism [NOUN]

STUDY OF; SPEECH, DISCOURSE, word — etymology, tautology, eulogy, anthology, epilogue, monologue, soliloquy, colloquy, neologism

-meter, -metry, -metric [NOUN/ADJ]

MEASURE, MEASUREMENT — barometer, symmetry, asymmetry, geometry, telemetry, anthropometric, perimeter

-mony, -ony, -ny [NOUN]

resulting STATE, CONDITION, or QUALITY (archaic-flavored abstract noun) — acrimony, parsimony, sanctimony, testimony, matrimony, ceremony, felony

-nomy, -nomic, -nom- [NOUN/ADJ]

LAW, SYSTEM, ordered body of knowledge — autonomy, taxonomy, astronomy, economy, gastronomy, agronomy, antinomy

-pathy, -path, -pathic [NOUN/ADJ]

FEELING, SUFFERING, DISEASE — empathy, apathy, antipathy, sympathy, telepathy, sociopath, psychopath, pathology, pathos

-phile, -philia, -philic / -phobe, -phobia, -phobic [NOUN/ADJ]

LOVE OF, attraction to / FEAR OF, aversion to — bibliophile, Anglophile, audiophile, francophile, necrophilia; xenophobia, claustrophobia, technophobe, hydrophobic

-phone, -phony, -phonic [NOUN/ADJ]

SOUND, VOICE, speech — cacophony (bad sound), euphony, symphony, polyphonic, megaphone, aphonia, homophone

-scope, -scopy, -scopic [NOUN/ADJ]

INSTRUMENT FOR VIEWING; examination — microscope, telescope, kaleidoscope, periscope, endoscopy, macroscopic

-vorous, -vore [ADJ/NOUN]

EATING, DEVOURING, feeding on — carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivore, insectivorous, voracious

-ward, -wise, -y, -ry, -ery [MISC]

DIRECTION or MANNER (-ward/-wise); STATE, PLACE, or COLLECTION (-y/-ry/-ery) — untoward, wayward, otherwise, likewise; knavery, chicanery, effrontery, drudgery, treachery, buffoonery