-ar

suffix

suffix ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Suffix
  1. 1
    Of, near, or pertaining to; adjective suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. Often added to words of Latin origin, but used with other words also. morpheme

    "alveolus + -ar → alveolar"

  2. 2
    Ending of some agent nouns inherited from Middle English borrowed from Old French or Medieval Latin morpheme
  3. 3
    Ending of some agent nouns inherited from Middle English. morpheme

    "beggar, liar, pedlar"

  4. 4
    Used to form names of star types. morpheme

Synonyms

All synonyms
alanaryeseicid

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin -āris (“of, pertaining to”). Distant doublet of -al.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English -ar, -er, -arie, from Latin -ārius and Old French -aire. Doublet of -ary, -eer, -yer, and -ier.

Etymology 3

From Middle English -ar, -are, variant of Middle English -ere, from Old English -ere. More at -er.

Etymology 4

Clipping of star; modelled after the earlier coinages pulsar and quasar.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.