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pre-. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
pre-, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
pre- in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
pre- you have here. The definition of the word
pre- will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
pre-, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English pre-, borrowed from Latin prae-, from the preposition prae (“before”).
Pronunciation
Prefix
pre-
- Before; physically in front of; (anatomy) anterior.
- Before; earlier in time; beforehand.
Usage notes
- This prefix is usually prefixed to words without using a hyphen (for example, prefix, predate). A hyphen is used in the following cases:
- Where excluding a hyphen would be likely to lead to a mispronunciation of the word because "pre" appears not to be a complete syllable (for example, "pre-yaw course", which could be read as "prey aw course" if unhyphenated).
- Always in British English before the letter e (for example, pre-existing)
- Often in British English before other vowels (for example, pre-operative);
- Always in all varieties of English before a character other than a letter (for example, pre-1960).
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
before
- Armenian: նախա- (naxa-)
- Catalan: pre- (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 前- (zh) (qián), -前 (zh) (qián), 預-/预- (zh) (yù)
- Czech: před-
- Esperanto: antaŭ-
- Finnish: etu- (fi), esi- (fi)
- French: (before a word) pré- (fr); (before a number) d'avant (to form adjectives, for example a pre-1960 car - une voiture d'avant 1960), avant (fr) (to form adverbs, for example to go back pre-1960 - retourner avant 1960)
- Galician: pre- (gl)
- German: vor- (de), prä- (de)
- Greek: προ- (el) (pro-)
- Hebrew: טְרוֹם (trom), קְדַם (he) (qdam)
- Ido: pre-
- Italian: pre- (it)
- Malay: pra- (ms)
- Malayalam: മുൻ- (muṉ-)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: pre-
- Nynorsk: pre-
- Persian: پیش- (fa)
- Polish: przed (pl)
- Portuguese: pre- (pt), pré- (pt)
- Russian: до- (ru) (do-), пред- (ru) (pred-), пре- (ru) (pre-)
- Scottish Gaelic: ro-
- Spanish: pre- (es)
- Swedish: pre- (sv), för- (sv)
- Tagalog: dipa-
- Tatar: алдан- (aldan-)
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See also
Further reading
- “pre-”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “pre-”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “pre-”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN. -- includes many derived terms
Anagrams
- EPR, ERP, PER, Per., RPE, Rep, Rep., per, per-, per., rep
Catalan
Etymology
From Latin prae- (“before”).
Prefix
pre-
- before; used to form words meaning "in front of" or "before"
- before; used to form words meaning superiority or excellence
Derived terms
Further reading
Galician
Etymology
From Latin prae- (“before”).
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
From
.
Further reading
Ido
Etymology
Borrowed from English pre-, French pré-, Italian pre-, Spanish pre-, Russian пред- (pred-), пре- (pre-).
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
Italian
Etymology
From Latin prae- (“before”).
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
Anagrams
Latin
Prefix
prē-
- (Medieval Latin) Alternative form of prae-
Derived terms
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Latin prae.
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
References
- “pre-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Latin prae.
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
References
- “pre-” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Polish
Pronunciation
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
Derived terms
Further reading
- pre- in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Portuguese
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Latin prae-.
Prefix
pre-
- pre- (before)
Derived terms
Romanian
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Inherited from Latin per-, with a few cases influenced by prae. Doublet of prea-.
Prefix
pre-
- used with verbs to indicate repetition or insistence
Examples: presăra, prelinge. Compare also prevedea, priveghea
Etymology 2
Borrowed from French pre-, Latin prae-.
- pre-
Synonyms
Derived terms
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *per-.
Prefix
pre- (Cyrillic spelling пре-)
- Prefix prepended to adjectives and adverbs to denote excess of a feature; too, excessively, over-
- dug / predug ― long / overlong
- Prefix prepended to verbs to indicate an action being done excessively, again or differently; re-, over-
- trpati / pretrpati ― to stuff / to overstuff
- Prefix prepended to verbs to indicate change in form, especially through partition
- prepoloviti ― split up
- Prefix prepended to imperfective verbs to make them perfective; to indicate that the action has been carried out
- Spavat ću u hotelu. Prespavao sam u hotelu. ― I will sleep in a hotel. I slept (over) in a hotel.
Usage notes
The suffix matches the usage of all mentioned prefixes in English for all adjectives and majority of verbs. When "pre-" may cause confusion or cannot be prefixed to a verb in order to indicate repetition, opet or ponovo ("again" / "anew") followed by the verb construction is used instead, e.g. "redo" would be "ponovno uraditi" ("do again") rather than preraditi ("rework").
Slovene
Etymology
From Proto-Slavic *per-.
Pronunciation
Prefix
pre-
- Forms perfective verbs with the following meanings:
- (no change in meaning)
- pre- + zráčiti (“to ventilate”) → prezráčiti (“to ventilate”)
- through, across
- pre- + grísti (“to bite”) → pregrísti (“to bite through”)
- re-, again
- pre- + bȃrvati (“to paint”) → prebȃrvati (“to repaint”)
- over-, too much
- pre- + plačáti (“to pay”) → preplačáti (“to overpay”)
- for a certain time
- pre- + sedẹ́ti (“to sit”) → presedẹ́ti (“to sit for a certain time”)
Derived terms
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin prae- (“before”), from the Latin preposition prae.
Prefix
pre-
- pre-
- Antonyms: post-, pos-
Derived terms
Further reading