Meanings
nounpostposition (plural postpositions)
plural postpositions
- grammarA word that has the same purpose as a preposition but comes after the noun.
- The act of placing after, or the state of being placed after.
the postposition of the nominative case to the verb
1643, Joseph Mede, Daniel's Weeks
verbpostposition (third-person singular simple present postpositions, present participle postpositioning, simple past and past participle postpositioned)
present singular third person postpositions · participle present postpositioning · participle past postpositioned · past postpositioned
- grammarTo be placed after a the word that it modifies.
Nonetheless, PPs in my dataset not only make up the bulk of the non-clausal postpositionings, but they are also postpositioned at a relatively high rate, particularly in comparison to adverbs, the second most frequent form.
2020, Shannon Dubenion-Smith, “A typology of non-clausal postpositioning in German dialects”, in Janet Zhiqun Xing, editor, A Typological Approach to Grammaticalization and Lexicalization: East Meets West (Trends in Linguistics; 327), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 245
Synonyms & antonyms
Similar
postpositive preposition
Opposite
Broader
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*pós
- Proto-Indo-European*pósti
- Proto-Italic*posti
- Old Latinposte
- Latinpost
- Englishpost-
- Englishposition
- Englishpostposition
Translations
Ancient Greek ὑπόταξις
- ὑπόταξις (hupótaxis)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Basque postposizio
- postposizio(grammar) words that come after the noun
Bulgarian следлог
- следлог (sledlog)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Catalan posposició
- posposició(grammar) words that come after the noun
Chinese Mandarin 後置詞 /后置词
- 後置詞 /后置词 (hòuzhìcí)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Dutch achterzetsel, achtergeplaatst voorzetsel
- achterzetsel(grammar) words that come after the noun
- achtergeplaatst voorzetsel(grammar) words that come after the noun
Esperanto postpozicio
- postpozicio(grammar) words that come after the noun
Estonian tagasõna
- tagasõna(grammar) words that come after the noun
Finnish postpositio
- postpositio(grammar) words that come after the noun
German Nachsetzwort, nachgestellte Präposition
- Nachsetzwort(grammar) words that come after the noun
- nachgestellte Präposition(grammar) words that come after the noun
- Postposition(grammar) words that come after the noun
- nachgestelltes Verhältniswort(grammar) words that come after the noun
Hungarian névutó
- névutó(grammar) words that come after the noun
Icelandic eftirsetning
- eftirsetning(grammar) words that come after the noun
Irish iarfhocal
- iarfhocal(grammar) words that come after the noun
Italian posposizione, postposizione
- posposizione(grammar) words that come after the noun
- postposizione(grammar) words that come after the noun
Japanese 後置詞
- 後置詞 (kōchishi)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Korean 조사
- 조사 (josa)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Polish poimek, postpozycja
- poimek(grammar) words that come after the noun
- postpozycjaposition of a word
Portuguese posposição
- posposição(grammar) words that come after the noun
Romanian postpoziție
- postpoziție(grammar) words that come after the noun
Russian послело́г
- послело́г (poslelóg)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Spanish posposición, postposición
- posposición(grammar) words that come after the noun
- postposición(grammar) words that come after the noun
- posposiciónposition of a word
- postposiciónposition of a word
Thai ปัจฉบท, ปัจฉิมบท
- ปัจฉบท (bpàt-chà-bòt)(grammar) words that come after the noun
- ปัจฉิมบท (bpàt-chǐm-má-bòt)(grammar) words that come after the noun
Turkish sontakı
- sontakı(grammar) words that come after the noun
Vietnamese hậu giới từ
- hậu giới từ(grammar) words that come after the noun
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with postposition
editionpositioncommissionconditionadditionmissionpermissionnutritiontransmissionsubmissiontransitionacquisitionadmissionexhibitiontraditiontuitionemissionpartitionpropositionmusicianexpeditionignitionprohibitioninhibition
All rhymes →Cite this entry
APA
postposition. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/postposition
MLA
“postposition.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/postposition. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “postposition,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/postposition.
Source: postposition on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.