Out-

prefix

prefix ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Prefix
  1. 1
    External to, on the outside of morpheme

    "outback"

  2. 2
    Toward the outside of, away from morpheme

    "outcast"

  3. 3
    Forms verbs with the sense of surpassing or exceeding the prefixed word. This construction is productive. morpheme

    "outdo"

  4. 4
    Greater than morpheme

    "outsize"

  5. 5
    Beyond morpheme

    "The plant's leaves outgrew their box"

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Completely morpheme

    "outfit"

Synonyms

All synonyms
supraabapoawaydeecto

Example

More examples

"It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it."

Etymology

From Middle English ut-, from Old English ūt- (“out, without, outside”) (also as ūta-, ūtan- (“from or on the outside, without”), as in ūtanweard (“outward, external”)), from Proto-Germanic *ūt- (“out-”). Cognate with Dutch uit-, German aus-, Swedish ut-, Icelandic út-. More at out.

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