adjectivesuffix

An adjective suffix, sometimes referred to as adjectivesuffix, is a derivational suffix that attaches to a base word to create an adjective. In English and many other languages, such suffixes encode properties, relations, materials, or appearances and allow new adjectives to be formed without changing the base word’s core meaning.

Suffixes can attach to nouns, verbs, or even other adjectives. When added to nouns, they often convey a quality or relation (regional, wooden, metallic). When added to verbs, they express capability or resulting state (readable, washable, breakable). Some suffixes attach to adjectives to form more abstract adjectives (lovely, hasty from base adjectives). Productivity varies, and some forms are loaned from Latin, Greek, or French, influencing spelling and pronunciation constraints.

Common English adjective suffixes include: -able/-ible (readable, edible), -al (personal, regional), -ful (beautiful, grateful), -less (hopeless, fearless), -ous (dangerous, curious), -ic (historic, poetic), -ive (creative, active), -y (windy, sandy), -ish (greenish, childish), -like (childlike), -esque (picturesque). Directional suffixes such as -ward (forward) and -wise (clockwise) are sometimes treated as adjectival.

In linguistic analysis, adjective suffixes contribute to morphological parsing, lexical semantics, and word-formation studies. They vary in transparency and frequency across languages and dialects.