pre-

UK/pɹɛ/UK/pɹiː/US/pɹi/US/pɹɪ/

prefix

Before; physically in front of.

Similar
anteriorante-fore-
Opposite
post-after-
OriginMiddle English pre- ← Latin prae- →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

prefix

alternative archaic prae- · alternative archaic præ- · alternative p͛-

  1. Before; physically in front of.
    1. anatomySynonym of anterior.

      Synonyms: anterior

  2. Before; earlier in time; beforehand.

    Synonyms: ante-, fore-

Synonyms & antonyms

prefixSynonym of anterior.

Similar
anterior

prefixBefore; earlier in time; beforehand.

Similar
ante-fore-

antonym(s) of “anterior”

Opposite
post-

antonym(s) of “beforehand”

Opposite
after-
Also see
ante-fore-

Origin

  1. Latinprae-
  2. Middle Englishpre-
  3. Englishpre-

From Middle English pre-, borrowed from Latin prae-, from the preposition prae (“before”).

More words from Middle English, Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan pre-
  • pre-before
Chinese Mandarin 前-, -前
  • 前- (qián)before
  • -前 (qián)before
  • 預- /预- (yù)before
Czech před-
  • před-before
Esperanto antaŭ-
  • antaŭ-before
Finnish etu-, esi-
  • etu-before
  • esi-before
French pré-, d'avant
  • pré-before
  • d'avantbefore
  • avantbefore
German vor-, prä-
  • vor-before
  • prä-before
Greek προ-
  • προ- (pro-)before
Hebrew טְרוֹם, קְדַם
  • טְרוֹם (trom)before
  • קְדַם (qdam)before
Hindi पूर्व
  • पूर्व (pūrv)before
Indonesian pra-
  • pra-before
Italian pre-
  • pre-before
Malay pra-
  • pra-before
Norwegian Bokmål pre-
  • pre-before
Persian پیش-
  • پیش-before
Polish przed
  • przedbefore
Portuguese pre-, pré-
  • pre-before
  • pré-before
Russian до-, пред-
  • до- (do-)before
  • пред- (pred-)before
  • пре- (pre-)before
Scottish Gaelic ro-
  • ro-before
Spanish pre-
  • pre-before
Swedish pre-, för-
  • pre-before
  • för-before
Tagalog dipa-
  • dipa-before
Cite this entry
APA

pre-. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-

MLA

“pre-.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pre-,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-.

Source: pre- on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.