Nouns: formation with common prefixes

 

We use prefixes to change the meaning of nouns.

 

Prefixes go at the beginning of words:

• She lives in a subdivision outside of a large city.
• That is a bunch of nonsense.  I can’t believe you think that.
• He has to talk to his ex-wife frequently because of the children.
• The level of malnutrition in the children of this town is astonishing.
• There was a lot of unrest among the people after the president was arrested.
• For children with parents from different countries, biculturalism and bilingualism are often parts of their lives.
• Her learning disability has made it difficult for her to keep up with classmates.  

 

The most common noun prefixes and their meaning:

 

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
anti-	against	antibody, antifreeze
bi-	referring to two	bicycle, bilingualism, biculturalism
co-	together, with	coordination, cooperation
semi-	half of, not complete	semicircle, semidesert, semidarkness
mal-	bad, not enough	malfunction, malnutrition, maltreatment
ex-	former	exwife, ex-president, ex-smoker
sub-	under, below	subdivision, submarine, subset
dis-	bad, opposite of	disability, disbelief discomfort
non-	opposite of	nonsense, nonfiction
un-	lack of	unfairness, unrest, unemployment
over-	excessive, above	overwork, overheating

 

Note: You may see some nouns with prefixes written with a hyphen (-). This happens when a verb is not commonly used with a prefix, such as: ex-president. This will also depend on the type of English (American or British).