Vocabulary Basics: Latin Prefixes

This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is all about understanding prefixes that come from Latin

A prefix is defined as one or more letters "affixed" to the beginning of a word that contribute to its meaning. Many prefixes in the English language come from Greek or Latin.

We can often identify the meaning of an unfamiliar word by breaking it down into component parts, determining the meanings of those parts and speculating on the full word's meaning. For example, if we did not know the meaning of "antediluvian," we could speculate, based on the fact that the Latin root "ante" means "before," and "diluvian" means "flood." In this case, "antediluvian" refers to the time before the Biblical flood of Noah's Ark fame. A less literal meaning is "extremely primitive or outmoded," says Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

Here is a set of Latin prefixes:

Latin Word	Meaning	English Words that Use Latin Word as a Prefix
A, ab	from, away	avert, abnegation, abstract
Ad	to	adduce, adjacent, affect, accede
Ante	before	antediluvian, anteroom
Bi	two	biped, bicycle
Circum	around	circumambient, circumference
Cum, com, con, co	with, together	combine, consort, coadjutor
Contra	against	contradict, contrast
De	from, negative, down, intensive	deplete, decry, demerit, declaim
Di, dis	asunder, away from, negative	divert, disbelief
E, ex	from, out of	evict, excavate
Extra	beyond	extraordinary, extravagant
In	in, into, not	innate, instil, insignificant
Inter	among, between	intercollegiate, interchange
Intro, intra	into, within	introduce, intramural
Non	negative	nonage, nondescript
Ob	against, before, (facing), toward	obloquy, obstacle, offer
Per	through, extremely	persecute, perfervid, pursue, pilgrim, pellucid
Post	after	postpone, postscript
Pre	before	prepay, preoccupy
Pro	before	proceed, proffer
Re	back, again	return, resound
Retro	back, backward	retroactive, retrospective
Se	apart, aside	seclude, secession
Semi	half	semiannual, semicivilized
Sub	under, less than, inferior	subscribe, suffer, subnormal, subcommittee
Super	above, extremely	superfluous, supercritical, soprano
Trans	across, through	transfer, transparent
Ultra	beyond, extremely	ultramundane, ultraconservative

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