-ful
/fʊl/
-ful suffix: used to form adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun.
Suffix (1)
-ful (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -ful, superlative most -ful)
Suffix (2)
-ful (noun-forming suffix, plural -fuls or -sful)
- Used to form nouns from nouns meaning “as much as can be held by what is denoted by the noun”.
- bowl + -ful → bowlful
- hand + -ful → handful
Synonyms of -ful
Antonyms
Forms of -ful
| comparative | more -ful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most -ful |
| alternative uncommon | -full |
| alternative form | ⠰⠇ |
| plural | -fuls |
| plural | -sful |
Origin of -ful
Inherited from Middle English -ful, -full, from Old English -ful, -full (“full of; -ful”), from Proto-Germanic *-fullaz (“-ful”), from Proto-Germanic *fullaz (“full”); see full. Cognate with Scots -fu, Saterland Frisian -ful (“-ful”), West Frisian -fol (“-ful”), Dutch -vol (“-ful”), German -voll (“-ful”), Swedish -full (“-ful”), Danish -fuld (“-ful”), Icelandic -fullur, -fyllur (“-ful”).
Inherited from Middle English -ful, from Old English -ful, -full, from Proto-Germanic *fullō, *fullijô (“filling”).
Questions about -ful
- What does -ful mean?
- -ful means used to form adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun.
- What part of speech is -ful?
- -ful is a suffix.
- How do you pronounce -ful?
- -ful is pronounced /fʊl/.
Words near -ful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: -ful (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame--ful.wav.
Cite this entry: “-ful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-ful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.