Most Common English Suffixes : List, Meaning, Examples

A suffix is an affix which is added to the final or end position of a stem of a word to form a new word. This word formation process (adding suffixes) can change the meaning or the grammatical function of the base word. We distinguish here between two types of suffixes: inflectional and derivational suffixes.

Inflectional suffixes

Inflectional suffixes, also called grammatical suffixes, indicate basic grammatical categories such as tense or plurality. Inflection is viewed as the process of adding very general meaning to existing words, not as the creation of new words. Look at these examples:

Suffix	Grammatical change	Example
		Original word	Suffixed word
-s	plural	dog	dogs
-en	plural (irregular)	ox	oxen
-s	3rd person singular present	like	he likes
-ed	past tense past participle	work	he worked he has worked
-en	past participle (irregular)	eat	he has eaten
-ing	continuous/progressive	sleep	he is sleeping
-er	comparative	big	bigger
-est	superlative	big	the biggest

Derivational suffixes  

Derivational suffixes, as their name indicates, are affixes which derive or help form new words so enrich vocabulary words. Derivation process changes either the meaning or the part of speech of the word they attach to. Here are some of the more common ones:

Suffix	Meaning	Making	Example
			Original word	Suffixed word
-tion	state, action	Nouns	create	creation
-ation	state, action		fix	fixation
-ition	state, action		part	partition
-sion	state, action		include	inclusion
-ion	state, action		object	objection
-ment	state, action		arrange	arrangement
-ance	state, action		assist	assistance
-ence	state, action		differ	difference
-al	action, process of		refuse	refusal
-age	extent, amount		cover	coverage
-ness	state, quality		mean	meanness
-ity	state, quality		legal	legality
-ty	state, quality		royal	royalty
-hood	status		child	childhood
-ship	status, condition		friend	friendship
-dom	domain, condition		king	kingdom
-acy	state of quality		private	privacy
-esque	reminiscent of		arab	arabesque
-er	one who		teach	teacher
-or	one who		terminate	terminator
-ism	doctrine, belief		commune	communism
-ist	one who		psychiatry	psychiatrist
-ic	Pertaining to		base	basic
-ish	having the quality of		child	childish
-ive	having the nature of		relate	relative
-y	characterized by		monarch	monarchy
-ee	individual does something		employ	employee
-eer	engaged in something, associated with something		pion	pioneer
-th	state or quality		grow	growth
-ant	inclined to or tending to		serve	servant
-ar	of or relating to		beg	beggar
-ess	feminine of		prince	princess
-ade	action, process		lemon	lemonade
-ial	process of		memory	memorial
-an	of or relating to		republic	republican
-ian	relating to		comedy	comedian
-ure	action, process of, result		fail	failure
-al	action, process of	Adjectives	refuse	refusal
-ty	state, quality		chat	chatty
-able	capable of being		transfer	transferable
-ible	capable of being		access	accessible
-ful	notable for		doubt	doubtful
-ic	Pertaining to		alcohol	domestic
-ous	characterized by		danger	dangerous
-ious	characterized by		grace	gracious
-eous	characterized by		advantage	advantageous
-ive	having the nature of		collect	collective
-less	without		law	lawless
-y	characterized by		health	healthy
-ant	inclined to or tending to		rely	reliant
-ent	occurrence of action		persist	persistent
-ar	of or relating to		muscle	muscular
-ial	process of		resident	residential
-ing	action, process of		interest	interesting
-ed	quality of		point	pointed
-age	extent, amount	Verbs	package	package
-ify	cause to become		false	falsify
-fy	cause to become		lady	ladyfy
-ize (American English)	cause to become		final	finalize
-ise (British English)	cause to become		final	finalise
-en	make, become		sad	sadden
-ate	become		motive	motivate
-er	one who		glim	glimmer
-ish	having the quality of		ban	banish
-ward	in a certain direction	Adverbs	after	afterward
-wise	in relation to		clock	clockwise
-ly	having the quality of		quick	quickly