Word.ws English Dictionary

-et

-et suffix: used to form diminutives, loosely construed.

Suffix (1)

-et

  1. Used to form diminutives, loosely construed.
    Synonyms:
    -cule, -ee, -el, -ette, -icle, -ie, -kin, -le, -let, -ling

Suffix (2)

-et

  1. Used to augment verbs, largely monosyllabic, to form verbs with a frequentative or imitative force.
    • fidge + -et → fidget
    • jig + -et → jigget

Synonyms of -et

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of -et

alternative form-t

Origin of -et

Inherited from Middle English -et, from Old French -et, from Late Latin -ittus, -ettus.

Uncertain. Perhaps ultimately related to Middle English -ten, -eten, from Old English -ettan; possibly reinforced by Old Norse -ta.

Words formed from -et

Questions about -et

What does -et mean?
-et means used to form diminutives, loosely construed.
What part of speech is -et?
-et is a suffix.

Words near -et in the dictionary

  1. -estan
  2. -esthesia
  3. -esthesis
  4. -estr-
  5. -esy
  6. -et
  7. -ete
  8. -eth
  9. -ethidine
  10. -etic
  11. -etidine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -et (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-et.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-et. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.