Appendix:English prefixes by semantic category

English has many prefixes that are used to construct words, particularly in scientific and medical language. For a list of suffixes, see Appendix:English suffixes.

This page is an alternate sorting of the content in Appendix:English prefixes, which sorts prefixes by semantic categories rather than alphabetically.

Abstract
Category description: Prefixes used to indicate direction, movement, position, temporal relation, etc. Subcategories:
 * 1) Influences: Prefixes used to indicate reciprocal vs one-way relationships, controlling/resulting
 * 2) Normality: Prefixes used to indicate normal/abnormal, ordinary/extraordinary, regular/irregular
 * 3) Similarity: Prefixes used to indicate same/different, variety/uniformity

Academic disciplines
Category description: Prefixes used to evoke or refer to an academic discipline either as a social institution (e.g. the scientific community) or as as set of methodological approaches (e.g. scientific methodologies). Subcategories:
 * 1) Health sciences: Prefixes used for the health sciences.
 * 2) Linguistics: Prefixes used for components and divisions of linguistics.
 * 3) Mathematical: Prefixes used for academic fields structured around formal logic and mathematical methodologies.
 * 4) Natural: Prefixes used for the natural sciences.
 * 5) Societal: Prefixes used for the social sciences and humanities, other than linguistics.

Body parts
Category description: Body parts, both macro (e.g. skeleto-) and micro (e.g. karyo-). Includes body parts of non-humans (e.g. gills). Includes bodily fluids such as blood. Note: anatomical terms of direction/location/movement are categorized under Abstract. Subcategories:
 * 1) Anatomical regions: Anatomical terms for areas of the body that are not a specific organ, muscle, etc. For example, appendages (e.g. wings, limbs, talis) are anatomical regions.
 * 2) Bodily fluids: Prefixes used to indicate bodily fluids in a healthy body. Fluids such as pus will be found under Pathological.
 * 3) Bones: Prefixes used to indicate bones. Not limited to human bones.
 * 4) Brain: Parts of brains.
 * 5) Cavities: Names for different kinds of cavities and depressions in organs and other parts of the body, such as chambers of the heart.
 * 6) Cellular: Prefixes for the parts of cells, such as cilia or organelles.
 * 7) Connective tissues: Names of connective tissues in bodies.
 * 8) Ears: Parts of ears
 * 9) Eyes: Parts of ears.
 * 10) Gametes: Prefixes for gametes (eggs, sperm).
 * 11) Integument: Prefixes for the integumentary system: skin, hair, scales, feathers, hooves, nails, etc.
 * 12) Intestines: Prefixes for divisions of the intestines. Alt-Sort: orders from duodenum (2) to rectum (8).
 * 13) Joints: Prefixes for joints (the connections between bones).
 * 14) Membranes: Prefixes for membranes of the body.
 * 15) Muscles: Prefixes for muscles.
 * 16) Nerves: Prefixes for nerves.
 * 17) Organ systems: Prefixes for organ systems, e.g. gastrointestinal system.
 * 18) Organs: Prefixes for organs, interpeted broadly (includes glands).
 * 19) Orifices: Prefixes for orifices.
 * 20) Teeth: Prefixes for teeth and their connections to the mouth.
 * 21) Tubes and ducts: Prefixes for tubes and ducts of bodies, including blood vessels.

Body processes
Category description: The dynamics of bodies: e.g. sleep, pregnancy, olfaction. Sensory information (e.g. colour, temperature) are categorized under "Colours, shapes and textures" and "Physical properties". Entries here must be applicable to species other than humans. Bodily processes that are human-specific go under "Human acitvities". Subcategories:
 * 1) Bodily needs and functions: Basic physiological needs and functions, such as sleep and eating.
 * 2) Cellular processes: Cellular processes, such as mitosis and meiosis.
 * 3) Emotion: Affective states brought on by neurophysiological changes in the body.
 * 4) Pathological: Terms that involve pathologies (e.g. emeto for vomit, emesis).
 * 5) Reproduction: Prefixes concerning reproduction in a physiological sense; human sexual behaviour (e.g. sado-) is under Human Activities.
 * 6) Sensory: Prefixes concerning the neurophysiological element of sensory perception. Sensory information such as specific colours are under "Colours, shapes and textures" and "Physical properties".

Celestial bodies and their rotations
Category description: Names of specific bodies in our solar system, celestial bodies generally, and periods of time (which are generally based on celestial movement). Subcategories:
 * 1) General: Terms for generalized celestial bodies, such as stars.
 * 2) Solar system: Members of our solar system. Alt-Sort: order from the Sun (0) to Kuiper Belt (9).
 * 3) Time periods: Prefixes used to indicate a time period, generally based on the movement of the Earth relative to other celestial bodies (sun, moon, etc). Alt-Sort:  approximate number of days in each time period.

Chemical substances
Category description: Names for chemical elements, compounds, and mixtures. Includes biochemical and pharmacological substances. Note: chemical prefixes for quantity (e.g. tri-) and composition (e.g. trans-) are categorized as Abstract. Does not include atomic-level or subatomic-level particles (e.g. electrons). Subcategories:
 * 1) Acids: Prefixes for acids.
 * 2) Biochemistry: Prefixes used to indicate biochemical substances or biochemical reactions.
 * 3) Compounds: Prefixes not otherwise categorized that are used to indicate common chemical compounds.
 * 4) Derivatives: Prefixes used to indicate chemical derivatives.
 * 5) Elements: Prefixes for the elements of the periodic table. Alt-Sort: atomic number.
 * 6) Foods: Prefixes not otherwise categorized that are used for food chemistry.
 * 7) Forms: Prefixes used to indicate composition in forming chemical names.
 * 8) Functional groups: Prefixes for functional groups.
 * 9) Materials: Prefixes for materials such as glass, plastic, etc. Note that materials made out specific body parts of living organisms, such as wood or leaves, will be categorized under Body Parts.
 * 10) Pharmacological: Prefixes used to indicate pharmacological moieties, derivatives, etc.
 * 11) Radicals: Prefixes for free radicals in organic chemistry. Unbound (non-free) radicals are subcategorized as Functional Groups.
 * 12) Substituents: Prefixes used to indicate a chemical substitution.

Colours, shapes, and textures
Category description: Prefixes used for specific colours, shapes, textures, and sounds. These are forms of sensory information that have a stronger psychocultural element to them than those in the category "Physical properties". For example, while there are wavelengths that correspond to certain colours, some colours (e.g. magenta) do not have associated wavelengths as they are created neuropsychologically. The sensory processes of colour vision, haptic information, etc is under Body Processes. Subcategories:
 * 1) Shapes: Prefixes used to describe various geometric shapes. Primarily used for naming organisms.
 * 2) Boxy: Prefixes for shapes that are boxy - like a cube, square, prism, rectangle, rhombus, etc.
 * 3) Conical: Prefixes for shapes that are roughly conical, or bowl-shaped.
 * 4) Cross: Prefixes for shapes like a cross or X; linear with a cross-beam.
 * 5) Curly: Prefixes for shapes that are spirals, twisted, coiled, helical, etc.
 * 6) Filiform: Prefixes that are like a hair or string.
 * 7) Round: Prefixes for shapes that are like spheres, circles, disks, rings, etc.
 * 8) Spiky: Prefixes for shapes that star-like or otherwise spiky.
 * 9) Cylindrical: Prefixes for shapes that are cylindrical, tubular, rod-like, or phallic.
 * 10) Yonic: Prefixes for shapes that have an elliptic shape, but have tapering on the ends (e.g. fusiform), so are not properly Round.
 * 11) Branching: Prefixes for shapes that have a branching structure, like a feather or leaf.
 * 12) Bumpy: Prefixes for shapes that have rounded bumps rather than sharp spikes (see: Spiky).
 * 13) Sounds: Prefixes for specific sounds (e.g. a thud), rather than the concept of sound, acoustics, or the auditory sensory system.
 * 14) Textures: Prefixes for textures.

Human activities
Category description: Prefixes for things that individual humans /do/ (i.e. verbs), perhaps in groups. Entries must be considered human-specific. Bodily activities that are not human-specific will be found under Body Processes (e.g. eating). Subcategories:
 * 1) Healing: Prefixes for human activities that are primarily associated with healing.
 * 2) Language: Prefixes for the process of creating language. Does not include linguistic units like phonemes.
 * 3) Other human activities: Prefixes for human activities that did not fit into any of the other subcategories; themes include feasting and warring.
 * 4) Types of media: Prefixes for forms of artistic expression by medium or genre.

Landforms and ecosystems
Category description: Prefixes for macro-scale types of land, terrain, ecosystems, biomes, etc. Subcategories:
 * 1) Ecosystems: Prefixes for types of natural ecosystems and biomes that are not landforms. Human-made ecosystems, such as cities, will be found under Social Facts.
 * 2) Landforms: Prefixes for physical landforms.
 * 3) Oceanic: Prefixes that are used specifically for oceanic ecosystems. Note other terms such as "hydro" (for water) also get used for marine ecosystems and will be found under chemical substances. Lakes and rivers will be found under Landforms.

Life stages
Category description: Ways of grouping organisms (human or non-human) other than by species, such as by life stages (e.g. gero- for the elderly) and gender roles (e.g. gyne- for female). Entries in this category must be applicable to individuals, and they must be applicable to non-humans. Subcategories:
 * 1) Genders: Prefixes for an organism's gender, sex, or mating type.
 * 2) Life cycle: Stages of a typical (anthropocentric) life cycle. Alt-Sort: 1 for birth to 9 for death.

Lifeforms
Category description: Names of species, genera, families, or other groupings of living organisms. E.g. api- for bees. Subcategories:
 * 1) Animals: Names of species, genera, families, etc within the animal kingdom.
 * 2) Bacteria: Names of species, genera, families, etc within the bacterial kingdom.
 * 3) Fungi: Names of species, genera, families, etc within Kingdom Fungi.
 * 4) Plants: Names of species, genera, families, etc within Kingdom Plantae.
 * 5) Protists: Names of species, genera, families, etc within the protist kingdom.

Particles
Category description: Prefixes used to indicate atomic-level and subatomic particles in physics and chemistry. Subcategories:
 * 1) Particles: Prefixes used to indicate atomic-level and subatomic particles in physics and chemistry.

Physical properties
Category description: Properties that matter and energy can have (e.g elastic, acidic). Excludes colour, shapes, textures, and specific sounds (e.g. a thud), which all have strong psychological and cultural aspects to their sensory perception by humans, and hence have a category of their own. Subcategories:
 * 1) Climactic conditions: Qualities of a climate: its humidity and its temperature. These terms are also used in contexts outside of describing climate.
 * 2) Other physical properties: Chemicophysical properties that are not tastable, not about dryness or temperature, not a state of matter, not a colour, not a shape, and not a texture.
 * 3) States of matter: States of matter: liquid, gas, etc. Alt-Sort: 1: solid to 4: plasma.
 * 4) Tasteable properties: Chemicophysical properties that correspond to what the human gustatory system can taste.

Proper nouns
Category description: Capitalized prefixes for proper nouns, such as for countries, languages, and ethnic groups. Subcategorized in the following order: Subcategories:
 * 1) Extant countries: Prefixes for contemporary countries. (Autonomous regions within contemporary countries may be found under Historical Nations.)
 * 2) Historical countries: Prefixes used for former kingdoms, countries, nations, etc.
 * 3) Languages: Prefixes used for the proper names of specific human languages. Because Extant Countries is subcategorized first, many languages will be found there as well.
 * 4) Personal names: Prefixes used to construct names of people.
 * 5) Popular culture: Prefixes used to refer to the popular culture of a given country, or popular franchises.
 * 6) Regions: Supranational geographical regions based around notable physical geographic features e.g. mountain ranges, large deserts, etc. Alt-Sort: is it a Continent or Body of water?
 * 7) Religions/philosophies: Prefixes used for the proper names of specific religious and philosophical movements.

Social facts
Category description: Social facts in the Durkheimian sense: ideas, norms, values, etc that transcend the individual. Includes social institutions, social ranks, political movements, and mythological concepts. Unlike the category "Human acivities", which is verb-oriented, this category is noun-oriented. Subcategories:
 * 1) Political and social movements: Social movements (e.g. the LGBTQ+ community), political movements (e.g. anarchism), and political philosophies (e.g. anarchy).
 * 2) Religion & mythology: Prefixes for concepts and entities from religion and mythology.
 * 3) Social institutions: Prefixes for sociocultural institutions, interpreted broadly. Can refer to the groups in an institution, the institution itself, or a generalized conception of the institution.

Technologies
Category description: Regarding human-made objects that are produced from technical knowledge. Subcategories:
 * 1) Communication technologies: Prefixes used to indicate a mode of communication or information storage, e.g. biblio- for book.
 * 2) Tools and machine components: Prefixes for mechanical components.
 * 3) Transportation: Prefixes used to indicate a mode of transportation, e.g. heli- for helicopter.
 * 4) Types of technologies: Prefixes used to indicate the nature, rather than domain, of technologies.
 * 5) Warfare: Prefixes for technologies used for warfare

Weather and natural disasters
Category description: Prefixes for atmospheric and seismic conditions that cause weather and natural disasters. Subcategories:
 * 1) Seismic: Prefixes for seismic conditions.
 * 2) Weather: Prefixes for forms of atmospheric conditions that cause weather.

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