Preformative

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    a formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word.

    "Ch. a prefix prep. as in Hebrew, the sign of the dative; also of the genitive and accusative; and as a conj. before the future, which then rejects the preformative, that"

  2. 2
    Misspelling of performative. alt-of, misspelling
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to preformation. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Of a thing: forming or affecting something that comes later. not-comparable
  3. 3
    of a letter, syllable, etc.: attached to the beginning of a word as a formative element. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
preformant

Example

More examples

"Ch. a prefix prep. as in Hebrew, the sign of the dative; also of the genitive and accusative; and as a conj. before the future, which then rejects the preformative, that"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + formative, modelled after Late Latin praeformativus (originally used in relation to the grammar of Semitic languages).

Etymology 2

In many cases merely a typo; less commonly, sometimes due to a misapprehension of morphology.

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