Word.ws English Dictionary

-fold

-fold suffix: used to make adjectives meaning "times".

Suffix

-fold (adjective-forming suffix, not comparable)

  1. Used to make adjectives meaning "times".
    • There has been a threefold increase in inflation ( = inflation is three times what it was before)
    • The cancer tissue in two of the ... specimens ... exhibited a dramatic 23-fold increase in the laminin-receptor-mRNA levels.1991, Vittoria Cioce; Vince Castronovo; Barry M. Shmookler; et. al, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, "Increased Expression of the Laminin Receptor in Human Colon Cancer" [1]
  2. Used to make adverbs meaning "times".
    • Inflation has increased threefold ( = inflation is three times what it was before)
    • A publication ... entitled "The Sixth Financial and Economical Annual of Japan" ... issued in 1906 ... says: ¶ "...[O]ur export trade had in ... thirty-two years increased thirty-four-fold with Asia, twenty-three-fold with America, and five-fold with Europe[.]c. 1906, Silk Association of America, XXXV Annual Meeting of the Silk Association of America

-fold meaning in Vietnamese

-fold in Vietnamese

used to make adjectives
gấp, lần

Examples of -fold in a sentence

  • "[Use] of a decimal without a zero to the left of the decimal (ie .5 instead of 0.5) has resulted in 10-fold error[.]2011, Joel. E. Houghlum, Principles of Pharmacology for Athletic Trainers:
  • Ezekiel outlines the harlotry of Judah followed by a thirty-two-fold judgment.2013, Jerome Strong, Spiritual Musings II: Sermons, Musings & Exegesis:
  • In contrast, the number of Asian foreign born would increase twenty-two-fold to more than 11 million, and the number of Latin American foreign born would increase twenty-three-fold to 22 million.2014, Thomas R. Oliver, Guide to U.S. Health and Health Care Policy:
  • BP (BP) has also promised to increase its low carbon investments 10-fold by 2030 as part of its bid to get to net zero emissions by 2050.2020 August 18, Matt Egan, “It’s a bizarre time for Trump to open Alaska’s Arctic refuge up to oil drilling”, in CNN Business, archived...

Origin of -fold

From Middle English -fold, -fald, -fauld, from Old English -feald (“-fold”), from Proto-West Germanic *-falþ, from Proto-Germanic *-falþaz (“-fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *-poltos (“-fold”), from *pel- (“to fold”). Cognate with Dutch -voud, Swedish -faldig (“-fold”), Latin -plus, -plex, Ancient Greek -παλτος (-paltos), -πλος (-plos), -πλόος (-plóos). More at fold.

Words formed from -fold

Questions about -fold

What does -fold mean?
-fold means used to make adjectives meaning "times".
What is -fold in Vietnamese?
-fold in Vietnamese is gấp, lần. See -fold meaning in Vietnamese.
How do you use -fold in a sentence?
"[Use] of a decimal without a zero to the left of the decimal (ie .5 instead of 0.5) has resulted in 10-fold error[.]
What part of speech is -fold?
-fold is a suffix.

Words near -fold in the dictionary

  1. -floxacin
  2. -fluencer
  3. -flurane
  4. -flux
  5. -focon
  6. -fold
  7. -form
  8. -formin
  9. -fos
  10. -fos-
  11. -fosfamide

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -fold (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us--fold.ogg.

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