There are a total of 454 Suffixes that have been compiled and organized in this comprehensive list. The selection includes genuine bound morphemes used as suffixes (productive, historical, or widely attested).
Suffixes are bound morphemes attached to the end of base words to form new words or change grammatical function. They range from common, productive endings like -ing and -able to historical or specialist forms preserved in names and technical terms. Suffixes can be derivational, changing meaning or part of speech, or inflectional, marking tense, number, or comparison. Writers, students, ESL learners and editors use them to build vocabulary and analyze word formation.
Interesting and little-known facts about Suffixes:
– About 30–60 derivational suffixes are commonly productive in modern English, while many more are historical or rare.
– A large share of English derivational suffixes trace back to Latin or Old French, reflecting centuries of borrowing.
– Some suffixes trigger stress shift or spelling changes (for example, -ic → -icity alters stress and form).
– Obsolete suffixes often survive in place names and surnames, preserving older morphology.
– Linguists reconstruct some suffixes back to Proto-Indo-European, showing continuity across millennia.
Use the A–Z index below to open letter-by-letter lists of suffixes and related entries. Each letter list shows origin (language/period), meaning (short phrase), and example words (2–4); entries cite reputable dictionaries, morphology texts and corpora.
A — [A](/suffixes/a)
B — [B](/suffixes/b)
C — [C](/suffixes/c)
D — [D](/suffixes/d)
E — [E](/suffixes/e)
F — [F](/suffixes/f)
G — [G](/suffixes/g)
H — [H](/suffixes/h)
I — [I](/suffixes/i)
J — [J](/suffixes/j)
K — [K](/suffixes/k)
L — [L](/suffixes/l)
M — [M](/suffixes/m)
N — [N](/suffixes/n)
O — [O](/suffixes/o)
P — [P](/suffixes/p)
Q — [Q](/suffixes/q)
R — [R](/suffixes/r)
S — [S](/suffixes/s)
T — [T](/suffixes/t)
U — [U](/suffixes/u)
V — [V](/suffixes/v)
W — [W](/suffixes/w)
X — [X](/suffixes/x)
Y — [Y](/suffixes/y)
Z — [Z](/suffixes/z)