Prefix

Definition: Prefix

Prefix

Noun

1. An affix that added in front of the word.

Verb

1. Attach a prefix to; "prefixed words".

Date "prefix" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1532. (references)

Domain	Definition
Computing	Prefix 1. The standard metric prefixes used in the SI (Syst`eme International) conventions for scientific measurement. With units of time or things that come in powers of 10, such as money, they retain their usual meanings of multiplication by powers of 1000 = 10^3. When used with bytes or other things that naturally come in powers of 2, they usually denote multiplication by powers of 1024 = 2^(10). Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the corresponding binary interpretations in common use: prefix abr decimal binary yocto- 1000^-8 zepto- 1000^-7 atto- 1000^-6 femto- f 1000^-5 pico- p 1000^-4 nano- n 1000^-3 micro- * 1000^-2 * Abbreviation: Greek mu milli- m 1000^-1 kilo- k 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024 mega- M 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576 giga- G 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 tera- T 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776 peta- 1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624 exa- 1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 zetta- 1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 yotta- 1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 The prefixes zetta-, yotta-, zepto-, and yocto- have been included in these tables purely for completeness and giggle value; they were adopted in 1990 by the "19th Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures". The binary peta- and exa- loadings, though well established, are not in jargon use either - yet. The prefix milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always been rare in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the "millihelen" - notionally, the amount of beauty required to launch one ship). "Femto" and "atto" (which, interestingly, derive not from Greek but from Danish) have not yet acquired jargon loadings, though it is easy to predict what those will be once computing technology enters the required realms of magnitude (however, see attoparsec). The abbreviated forms of these prefixes are common in electronics and physics. k, M and G are also common in computing where they stand for powers of two more often than powers of ten. Thus "MB" stands for megabytes (2^20 bytes). In speech, the unit is often dropped so one may talk of "a 40K salary" (40000 dollars) or "2M of disk space" (22^20 bytes). The accepted pronunciation of the initial G of "giga-" was once soft, /ji'ga/ (like "gigantic"), but now the hard pronunciation, /gi'ga/, is probably more common. [Is this true of Commonwealth countries?] Note that the formal SI metric prefix* for 1000 is lower case "k"; some, including this dictionary, use this strictly, reserving "K" for multiplication by 1024 (KB is thus "kilobytes"). Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in magnitude) - for example, describing a memory in units of 500K or 524K instead of 512K - is a sure sign of the marketroid. One example of this: it is common to refer to the capacity of 3.5" microfloppies as "1.44 MB" In fact, this is a completely bogus number. The correct size is 1440 KB, that is, 1440 * 1024 = 1474560 bytes. So the "mega" in "1.44 MB" is compounded of two "kilos", one of which is 1024 and the other of which is 1000. The correct number of megabytes would of course be 1440 / 1024 = 1.40625. Alas, this fine point is probably lost on the world forever. In 1993, hacker Morgan Burke proposed, to general approval on Usenet, the following additional prefixes: groucho (10^-30), harpo (10^-27), harpi (10^27), grouchi (10^30). This would leave the prefixes zeppo-, gummo-, and chico- available for future expansion. Sadly, there is little immediate prospect that Mr. Burke's eminently sensible proposal will be ratified. 2. Related to the prefix notation. (2001-02-14). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Language	An affix which precedes the root of a word immediately or before another prefix. Source: European Union. (references)
Math	The beginning characters of a string. More formally a string v * is a prefix of a string u * if u=vu' for some string u' *. (references)
Post & Telecom	Initial portion of a multi-component signal which has the function of preparing or sensitising a circuit for the receipt of the remainder of the signal. Source: European Union. (references)
Public Administration	Any code preceding the dial code proper; prefix 0 is used for special DDD toll calls such as person-to-person and collect calls which require operator assistance. (PH/pTIH). Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. In English, most prefixes are bound morphemes, meaning that they cannot occur as independent words (excluding citational uses, e.g., saying "Speaking of the prefix, 'un-',...").

Associative prefix

Associative prefixes shows an association. For examples in Old English and German, ge- has the parallel semantics as the Latin com-, such as indicating:

collectivity. For example, Gebirge, meaning "mountain range", is derived from Berg, meaning "mountain".
Perfectivity, like past participles.

Crosswords: Prefix

Specialty definitions using "prefix": American National Standard, astro, atto-, azimuth angle ♦ bearing angle, BSR ♦ calc, centi, clino, clouds, comment out ♦ deka ♦ exa-, exabyte ♦ femto, femto- ♦ geo, geo-, giga, giga-, gigabit, gigaflops ♦ hecto, Huffman coding, hyalo- ♦ International Organization for Standardization ♦ k-, Kerato, kilo-, kiloflops ♦ lith- ♦ mechanics of fluids, mega-, mela-, mero-, Meta, micros~1, milli, myria ♦ nano, nano-, net.- ♦ omni, ortho-rocks ♦ peta-, petabyte, pico, pico-, polar explosive, Porphyrins, prefix code, prefix syntax, prepend, protected mode, proxy server ♦ segmented address space, subtree ♦ temporal logic, tera-, trinary function ♦ vitro- ♦ Why ♦ xeno- ♦ Yet Another, yocto-, yotta-, yottabyte ♦ zepto, zetta-, zettabyte. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Prefix" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Czech (prefix), Romanian (prefix), Swedish (prefix).

Domain	Usage
Lyrics	Da right prefix whenever you should see her make da giggolo flex (It Wasn't Me; performing artist: Shaggy)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Basic Prefix & Root Vocabulary Builder (reference) Parallel Computing Using the Prefix Problem (reference) Prefix / Suffix Identification (PSI) Guide (reference) Prefix Map of the World, 1993 (reference) Russian verbal prefixation and semantic features : an analysis of the prefix VZ- (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	The power of assembling and dismissing the legislative, placed in the executive, gives not the executive a superiority over it, but is a fiduciary trust placed in him, for the safety of the people, in a case where the uncertainty and variableness of human affairs could not bear a steady fixed rule: for it not being possible, that the first framers of the government should, by any foresight, be so much masters of future events, as to be able to prefix so just periods of return and duration to the assemblies of the legislative, in all times to come, that might exactly answer all the exigencies of the common- wealth; the best remedy could be found for this defect, was to trust this to the prudence of one who was always to be present, and whose business it was to watch over the public good. (Second Treatise of Government)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		For example, the prefix "osteo" means bone, so a cancer arising in bone is called an osteosarcoma. (references)
		Similarly, the prefix "adeno" means gland, so a cancer of gland cells is called adenocarcinoma�for example, a breast adenocarcinoma. (references)
Business		Alternative service providers for fixed-line communication services do exist in France, but they require a prefix to be dialed before the number. (references)
		Other innovative options include regional free calls, city tariffs, discount prices per minute, discount prices per call, and premium pricing for special hotlines (0190 prefix). (references)
		Services are accessed directly from touch-tone telephones using either a number prefix or an automatic dialing box. Savings, particularly on international calls, can be significant. (references)
Political Economy	Tuvalu	With donor assistance, Tuvalu has developed a well-managed trust fund, which is supplemented by significant annual payments for use of its international telephone-dialing prefix. (references)
Travel	Italy	An example of an incoming long distance call from the U.S. to Rome is as follows: 328-6187041 (39 being the country code, 328 a sample mobile prefix). (references)
	Italy	With regards to dialing procedures of mobile phones, please note that as of June 2001, the +ACI-0+ACI- has been dropped from the prefix of all mobile phone numbers. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Prefix" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.68% of the time. "Prefix" is used about 82 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	92.68%	76	38,217
Noun (proper)	3.66%	3	202,518
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	2.44%	2	245,945
Lexical Verb (base form)	1.22%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	82	N/A

Expressions using "prefix": prefix notation ♦ prefix syntax ♦ priority prefix. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "prefix": prefix-plus-stem, prefix-suffix.
	Ending with "prefix": euro-prefix, yak-prefix.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "prefix"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		parashtesoj, parashtesë (particle), vë përpara (haze, March, rout). (various references)

Arabic		‏حدد (adjust, allocate, appoint, assess, assign, be specified, calibrate, center, centre, condition, constrict, define, determine, fix, itemize, limit, line, locate, mark, name, narrow, pin, pinpoint, prescribe, qualify, set, shoe, type), ‏تحديد مقدم, ‏تصدير (exordium, export, foreword, preface), ‏عين (allocate, appoint, assign, assist, constitute, create, define, delimit, designate, eye, install, institute, make, name, ordain, peeper, poach, post, put, rescue, set smb. on smb., specify, state, succor, succour, supply, tap), ‏اللقب التصديري, ‏البادئة لبدأ كلمة أخرى, ‏أصدر ببادئة, ‏بادئة (acanthus, pseudo, un-). (various references)

Bulgarian		слагам като увод, слагам представка, префикс, представка (particle, preformative, prosthesis), прибавям в началото на, поставям като увод. (various references)

Chinese		詞� � , 字首 , 前缀. (various references)

Czech		prefix, předpona. (various references)

Danish		praefiks, præfix, præfiks, forstavelse. (various references)

Dutch		voorvoegsel. (various references)

Esperanto		prefikso. (various references)

Finnish		prefiksi, valmisteluelementti, etuliite. (various references)

French		préfixe. (various references)

German		Präfix, vorsilbe. (various references)

Greek		πρόθεμα. (various references)

Hebrew		תחלית, ק�"ומת. (various references)

Hungarian		előképző. (various references)

Indonesian		awalan. (various references)

Italian		prefisso (code). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		プレハブ住宅 (prefabricated house, premiere show, premium, premium sale, preparation, preview, previewer), プラント輸出 (angrily, export of manufacturing plant, in a huff, in anger, plait, planner, planning, pleat, pleated skirt, pre-, pre-amplifier, preference, preprocessor, prerecording, preset, pretty, pretty-print, priest, prima ballerina, prima donna, primitive, primitive art, prince, Prince Edward Island, prince melon, princess, princess coat, principle, printer, prism, pudding), 接� �語 , 接� �辞 , 接� � . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		プリフィクス , プレフィクス , せっとう�", せっとうじ, せっとう (larceny, stealing, theft). (various references)

Korean		� �두어. (various references)

Manx		roie-ockle (preposition), cur myr roie-raa, cur myr roie-ockle rish. (various references)

Papiamen		prefiho. (various references)

Pig Latin		efixpray

Portuguese		prefixo (set). (various references)

Romanian		prefixa, prefix, titlu (caption, deed, degree, dignity, distinction, head, head line, name, purity, share, style, title, titre), adãuga (accede, add, adjoin, affix, amplify, annex, append, attach, augment, complete, enclose, enlarge, extend, follow up with, schedule, superinduce, supervene, supplement, swell, tack). (various references)

Russian		предпосылать (precede, premise), приставка, приставлять спереди. (various references)

Scottish		Pit- (prefix in farm and townland names in Pictland), ana- (negative prefix), do-, du- (prefix of negative quality), di-, diom-, dim-, dí-, dì- (negative prefix), comh-, com- (prefix denoting "with), bricein- (a prefix to certain animal names), bith- (prefix denoting "ever"), òr- (prefix air), ana-, an-, ain- (prefix of excess), eas- (privative prefix), an- (negative prefix), am-, amh- (privative prefix), ain- (privative prefix), aim-, aimh- (privative prefix), ad-, adh- (inseparable prefix), ao- (privative prefix), ea-, èa- (privative prefix), to-, do- (verbal prefix = to), eu- (negative prefix), eug- (negative prefix), foir- (prefix meaning "super"), frith (a sour or angry look, trifling; also a prefix meaning `of a lower degree'), inn-, ionn- (prep. prefix of like force with frith), iol- (prefix denoting "many"), iom- (the broad-vowel form of the prefix im-), ion- (negative prefix an before b), ionn- (prefix of the same force as fri), nic (female patronymic prefix, used like `mac' in patronymics, when a female), oir- (prefix denoting "ad" or "on"), so- (a prefix denoting good quality), du- , do- (prefix denoting badness of quality). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		prefiks, predmetak, staviti prefiks. (various references)

Spanish		prefijo (code). (various references)

Swedish		prefix. (various references)

Turkish		ismin önüne konan ünvan, başına eklemek, önek koymak, önek (affix), önüne eklemek. (various references)

Turkmen		pristawka (r). (various references)

Ukrainian		префікс (prosthesis), приставляти спереду, приросток, додавати префікс. (various references)

Vietnamese		ví dụ Dr, từ chỉ chức tước. (various references)

Welsh		rhagddodiad, blaenddodiad, blaenddodi, arddodi (impose). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "prefix": prefixal, prefixed, prefixes, prefixing. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Prefix" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: perfa, perfo, Perfrx, perif, Permfax, predi, predir, pref, prefat, prefax, preffix, prefi, prefixt, previ, profix. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "prefix" (pronounced prē"fiks)
4	-f i k s	affix, demographics, graphics, hieroglyphics, micrographics, reprographics, specifics, suffix.
3	-i k s	academics, acoustics, acrobatics, acrylics, aerobatics, aerobics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, aesthetics, alcoholics, analgesics, analytics, anesthetics, anorexics, antibiotics, antics, apparatchiks, appendix, asthmatics, astronautics, astrophysics, athletics, atmospherics, attics, automatics, avionics, ballistics, basics, batiks, beatniks, bioethics, biologics, biophysics, bishoprics, calisthenics, Calix, calyx, catholics, ceramics, cervix, characteristics, charismatics, civics, classics, clerics, clinics, comics, conics, cosmetics, Criminalistics, critics, cynics, diabetics, diagnostics, diuretics, domestics, dynamics, eccentrics, econometrics, economics, electrics, electrodynamics, electronics, epics, epidemics, ergonomics, ethics, ethnics, eugenics, exotics, fabrics, fanatics, forensics, generics, genetics, geometrics, geopolitics, geriatrics, gimmicks, gymnastics, harmonics, helix, hemodynamics, heroics, histrionics, hydraulics, hypnotics, hysterics, informatics, ionics, italics, kibbutzniks, kinetics, limericks, linguistics, logistics, lyrics, macroeconomics, Magnetics, mathematics, matrix, mavericks, mechanics, medics, metaphysics, metrics, microeconomics, microelectronics, mimics, mnemonics, mosaics, mystics, narcotics, Nucleonics, numismatics, obstetrics, onomastics, onyx, optics, orthodontics, oryx, panics, paramedics, Pediatrics, Phenix, Phoenix, phonetics, phonics, photovoltaics, physics, plastics, polemics, prosthetics, psychics, publics, pyrotechnics, refuseniks, relics, republics, robotics, romantics, semantics, semiotics, skeptics, sonics, sputniks, statistics, stoics, synthetics, systematics, tactics, Technics, tectonics, theatrics, therapeutics, thermoplastics, tonics, topics, toxics, tropics, workaholics.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-f-i-p-r-x"
	-1 letter: fixer, refix.
	-2 letters: fire, peri, pier, prex, reif, rife, ripe.
	-3 letters: fer, fie, fir, fix, ire, per, pie, pix, ref, rei, rep, rex, rif, rip.
	-4 letters: ef, er, ex, if, pe, pi, re, xi.
	Words containing the letters "e-f-i-p-r-x"
	+2 letters: prefixal, prefixed, prefixes, superfix.
	+3 letters: plexiform, prefixing.
	+4 letters: superfixes.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

50 72 65 66 69 78

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

.--. .-. . ..-. .. -..-

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010000 01110010 01100101 01100110 01101001 01111000

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#80 &#114 &#101 &#102 &#105 &#120

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0050 0072 0065 0066 0069 0078

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Precedence	Place before; prefix; premise, prelude, preface.
Precursor	Prelude, preamble, preface, prologue, foreword, avant-propos, protasis, proemium, prolusion, proem, prolepsis, prolegomena, prefix, introduction; heading, frontispiece, groundwork; preparation; overture, exordium, symphony; premises.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
phone prefix	708	area code prefix search	17
prefix	354	chinese meaning prefix	16
area code prefix	179	root prefix suffix	16
phone number prefix	156	california phone prefix	16
prefix and suffix	87	location phone prefix	16
lookup prefix	58	area code phone prefix	15
cell phone prefix	56	directory phone prefix	15
phone prefix lookup	46	international phone prefix	15
numbers phone prefix	35	dictionary prefix	13
locator prefix	32	medical prefix	13
metric prefix	31	numbers prefix	12
phone prefix search	31	look phone prefix up	12
locator phone prefix	29	english prefix	11
toll free prefix	28	oregon phone prefix	11
prefix search	27	arkansas phone prefix	11
finder prefix	27	illinois phone prefix	10
prefix scanner	24	dsn prefix	10
area code lookup prefix	21	oklahoma phone prefix	10
com microsoft namespace ns o office office prefix schema urn xml	19	meaning prefix	10
latin prefix	18	number phone prefix search	10
phone prefix finder	17	area code and prefix finder	10
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Prefix

Definition: Prefix

Prefix

Noun

Verb

Specialty Definition: Prefix

Specialty Definition: Prefix

See also

Synonyms within Context: Prefix

Precedence

Precursor

Crosswords: Prefix

Modern Usage: Prefix

Lyrics

Commercial Usage: Prefix

Books

Historic Usage: Prefix

John Locke

Non-Fiction Usage: Prefix

Usage Frequency: Prefix

Expressions: Prefix

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Prefix

Modern Translation: Prefix

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Papiamen

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Turkmen

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Derivations & Misspellings: Prefix

Derivations

Misspellings

Rhyming with "Prefix"

Anagrams: Prefix

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Alternative Orthography: Prefix

50 72 65 66 69 78

.--. .-. . ..-. .. -..-

01010000 01110010 01100101 01100110 01101001 01111000

&#80 &#114 &#101 &#102 &#105 &#120

0050 0072 0065 0066 0069 0078

508471727590

INDEX