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Unlike derivational suffixes, English derivational prefixes typically do not change the lexical category of the base (and are so called class-maintaining prefixes). Thus, the word do, consisting of a single morpheme, is a verb, as is the word redo, which consists of the prefix re-and the base root do.
Adding a prefix to the beginning of an English word changes it to a different word. For example, when the prefix un-is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy. The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning "attach", in this case), and the prefix pre-(meaning "before"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.
The root language of a numerical prefix need not be related to the root language of the word that it prefixes. Some words comprising numerical prefixes are hybrid words . In certain classes of systematic names, there are a few other exceptions to the rule of using Greek-derived numerical prefixes.
These prefixes are also commonly used to create metric units corresponding to older conventional units, for example hectares and hectopascals. Prefixes may not be used in combination on a single symbol. This includes the case of the base unit kilogram, which already contains a prefix. For example, milligram (mg) is used instead of microkilogram ...
The following is an alphabetical list of Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes commonly used in the English language from A to G. See also the lists from H to O and from P to Z . Some of those used in medicine and medical technology are not listed here but instead in the entry for List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes .
Meaning: a prefix used to make words with a sense opposite to that of the root word; in this case, meaning "without" or "-less". This is usually used to describe organisms without a certain characteristic, as well as organisms in which that characteristic may not be immediately obvious.
Example Search for titles containing the word or using the prefix: dactyl-, dactylo-G δάκτυλος (dáktulos) finger or toe: black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla; Pterodactylus: All pages with titles beginning with Dactyl: deca-, deka-G δέκα (déka) ten: alfonsino, Beryx decadactylus: All pages with titles beginning with Deca ...
The prefix kilo, for example, implies a factor of 1000 (10 3), and the prefix milli implies a factor of 1/1000 (10-3). Thus, a kilometre is a thousand metres, and a milligram is one thousandth of a gram. These relations can be written symbolically as: [4]