Word.ws English Dictionary

-ety

-ety suffix: often with frequentative force.

Suffix (1)

-ety

  1. Often with frequentative force.
    • jig + -ety → jiggety
    • hip-hop + -ety → hippety-hoppety
  2. Also seen in other fanciful compounds.
    • dig + -ety → diggety, hot diggety dog
    • lick + -ety → lickety, lickety-split

Suffix (2)

-ety

  1. Used to indicate qualities or states.
    • contrary + -ety → contrariety

Forms of -ety

alternative form-edy
alternative form-iddy
alternative form-ity
alternative form-oty

Origin of -ety

In some uses, apparently an alteration of -edy, as seen in jaggedy, raggedy, scaredy, etc.; equivalent to -ed + -y. The alteration of -d- to -t- is perhaps due to Scottish influence, where it is common for the past participle of Scots verbs to end in -et/-it rather than -ed as in English. In other usage, perhaps imitative of repeated action, equivalent to -et + -y. In any case, it is used almost exclusively in sound-symbolic or expressive words.

Cognate of -ity, ultimately from Latin -(i)tās. See more at -ity.

Questions about -ety

What does -ety mean?
-ety means often with frequentative force.
What part of speech is -ety?
-ety is a suffix.

Words near -ety in the dictionary

  1. -etic
  2. -etidine
  3. -etine
  4. -etta
  5. -ette
  6. -ety
  7. -eum
  8. -euse
  9. -ever
  10. -ex
  11. -exia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -ety (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.

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