-i

/iː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

English/aɪ/

-i suffix: used to form adjectives, nouns, demonyms (describing people of a particular city, region or country) or genonyms (describing people of a particular tribe, clan or family) and the language spoken by these people.

Suffix (1)

-i

Used to form adjectives, nouns, demonyms (describing people of a particular city, region or country) or genonyms (describing people of a particular tribe, clan or family) and the language spoken by these people.
- Hindustan + -i → Hindustani
- Hind + -i → Hindi

Suffix (2)

-i

Forms an alternative plural ending for various words borrowed from Latin that end in ⟨us⟩ in the singular.
- focus + -i → foci
- radius + -i → radii
1. (nonstandard, proscribed, sometimes) Forms an alternative plural ending for various words that end in ⟨us⟩ in the singular, despite not being borrowed from Latin.
  - platypus + -i → platypi
  - amogus + -i → amogi

Suffix (3)

-i

Forms an alternative plural ending for words borrowed from Italian that end in ⟨o⟩ or ⟨e⟩ in the singular.
- concerto + -i → concerti
- calzone + -i → calzoni

Suffix (4)

-i

Used to form diminutives of given names.
- Becki, Benji, Jimmi, Lexi, Nicki, Sammi, Sandi, Trini, Vicki

-i meaning in Urdu, Arabic and Persian

-i in Urdu

suffix to form a demonym (especially in the Middle East): ـی -ī

-i in Arabic

suffix to form a demonym (especially in the Middle East): ـِيّ -iyy

-i in Persian

suffix to form a demonym (especially in the Middle East): ـی -ī

Origin of -i

A conflation of the following suffixes: * For Semitic-speaking places, from the Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy) (nisba suffix) and from Hebrew ־י (-i), both sharing a common Semitic root. * For Indo-Iranian-speaking places, from Persian ـی (-ī) and Hindustani Hindi -ई (-ī) / Urdu ـی (-ī). In English, productive since the 19th century.

From Latin -ī (nominative plural).

From Italian -i (masculine plural), from Latin -ī (see etymology 2).

Phrases with -i

Questions about -i

What does -i mean?: -i means used to form adjectives, nouns, demonyms (describing people of a particular city, region or country) or genonyms (describing people of a particular tribe, clan or family) and the language spoken by these people.
What is -i in Urdu?: -i in Urdu is ـی (-ī). See -i meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is -i?: -i is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -i?: -i is pronounced /iː/.

Words near -i in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: -i (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: 2026-09-02

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