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Glite Dictionary
📎 To attach 🔤 To add in grammar 🧩 A word part
to affix

to affix

1 6.4
To add a small part like a prefix or suffix to a word to change its meaning
  • verb
  • /əˈfɪks/
  • Specialized
translation icon : afijar
  • The subscript t affixed to variables is used to designate injury tolerance levels.
  • affixing the suffix
  • affixing a morpheme

Examples

  • A market value can be affixed to biodiversity resources generally; however, it is important to consider the context.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The census thereby gets out of the business of trying to affix a single ancestry to each American.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Derived words (also known as morphologically complex words) are created by affixing a morpheme to a base word.

    Academic text (2012)

  • In the Derivation subtest, individuals are given a base word, and a correct response involves affixing a bound morpheme to the given base word (e.g., farmer in the example above).

    Academic text (2014)

  • When the affixation process also changes the lexical category of the base word, such as in the case of affixing the suffix to the base verb fix to create the adjective fixable, a derived word is created.

    Academic text (2012)

  • When forming new words, it is important to affix the correct prefix or suffix to the base word.

  • She learned how to affix labels to the boxes before moving them to the new house.

  • In grammar classes, students practice how to affix different endings to verbs.

Synonyms

to suffix
vsto affix
5.3

Add letters to the end of a word to make a new word or change its form

can attach at the start or end rather than only at the end

Antonyms

to detach
16 3.9

To take something off from what it is connected to

How Independent

categoreme
  • Specialized
9.9
word
∞ 1.0
clitic
  • Specialized
9.9
to affix
  • Specialized
1 6.4

Surface Forms

affix infinitive
affixed past
affixed past participle
affixing present participle
affixes third person singular

Morphology

affix = fix (transparent) = af + fix

The grammatical sense 'to attach (to a stem)' is a domain-specific extension of 'attach', which is inferable from 'fix'.

Etymology

Affix in grammar comes from Latin ad- 'to' and figere 'to fasten', the same root as the English fix. So to affix a prefix or suffix is to 'fasten' it onto a base word, changing the word's meaning.