Biology Prefixes

A prefix dictionary for biology and medicine

Some common prefixes:	Meanings of some common prefixes:
Prefix for bad → Prefix for both → Prefix for distant → Prefix for equal → Prefix for feather → Prefix for finger → Prefix for fern → Prefix for foot → Prefix for fruit → Prefix for hand → Prefix for heart → Prefix for large → Prefix for naked → Prefix for not → Prefix for plant → Prefix for small → Prefix for wide → Prefix for wing →	Prefix a → Prefix ab → Prefix ad → Prefix an → Prefix ambi → Prefix anti → Prefix bi → Prefix centi → Prefix dactyl → Prefix de → Prefix derm → Prefix dextro → Prefix glosso → Prefix im → Prefix in → Prefix infra → Prefix inter → Prefix iso →	Prefix macro → Prefix mal → Prefix mega → Prefix meso → Prefix meta → Prefix micro → Prefix oculo → Prefix olfact → Prefix onco → Prefix ortho → Prefix plasto → Prefix pre → Prefix pro → Prefix retro → Prefix rhizo → Prefix sinistro → Prefix sub → Prefix super →

A prefix is a letter or series of letters attached to the beginning of a word, word base, or suffix to produce a derivative word with a new meaning. There are many prefixes used by biologists in constructing scientific names and terminology. In general, they are either of Latin or Greek derivation. For example, in the word telophase, the prefix telo-, indicating end or conclusion, is attached to the beginning of the word phase. So telophase is the name of the last phase of meiosis and mitosis. As another example, the prefix bry- refers to moss, so bryology is the study of mosses.

Proper Names Used as Prefixes

In biology prefixes are often based on geographic and personal names. Examples of geographic prefixes are altaicus (= residing in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia), europaeus (= European), anatoliensis (= occurring in Anatolia). An example of a personal name used as a prefix is rogersii (= of Rogers). It would be pointless to include in this dictionary all of the proper names used as prefixes in the construction of scientific names, but users should consider this possibility when they fail to find a prefix in the dictionary.