ência

ences is a productive Catalan suffix that forms abstract nouns, typically feminine, from adjectives or participles to denote a quality, state, or process. It is widely used across domains such as science, philosophy, and everyday speech to express concepts that are not concrete objects but states or notions.

Etymology and relation to other languages. The suffix -ència derives from Latin -entia and has cognates in other Romance languages, notably Spanish -encia and English -ence. In Catalan orthography, words with this ending usually carry a grave or acute accent on the stem to indicate stress, and the final -cia often marks the abstract noun.

Morphology and usage. Nouns formed with -ència are feminine and typically pluralize as -ències. The suffix is productive, producing terms from a wide range of bases, including adjectives such as transparent, coherent, or efficient roots, and even some nouns and verbs where appropriate. This makes -ència a common way to express abstract ideas like quality or state.

Common examples. ciència (science), consciència (consciousness or awareness), paciència (patience), coherència (coherence), eficiència (efficiency), resistència (resistance), transparència (transparency), i paciència, entre altres. These forms illustrate the semantic breadth of the suffix—from intellectual or empirical concepts to perceptible or social properties.

See also. Catalan morphology; Romance-language cognates; Catalan orthography.