Word.ws English Dictionary

-ic

UK/ɪk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ək/

-ic suffix: used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.

Suffix

-ic (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -ic, superlative most -ic)

  1. Used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.
    • Cyril + -ic → Cyrillic
    • acid + -ic → acidic
  2. Used to denote certain chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a greater oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ous. For example sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).

-ic meaning in Hindi and Arabic

-ic in Hindi

Note: these translations are a guide only. For more precise translations, see individual words ending in -ic
इक ik

-ic in Arabic

Note: these translations are a guide only. For more precise translations, see individual words ending in -ic
ـِيّ -iyy

Forms of -ic

comparativemore -ic
superlativemost -ic
alternative form (obsolete)-ick

Origin of -ic

From Middle English -ik, from Old French -ique, from Latin -icus, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos, formed with the i-stem suffix *-i- and the adjectival suffix *-kos, *-ḱos. Compare Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), Sanskrit -इक (-ika) and Old Church Slavonic -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ). Doublet of -y; compare also -ac. Proto-Indo-European *-kos on noun stems carried the meaning 'characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to', and on adjectival stems it acted emphatically.

Questions about -ic

What does -ic mean?
-ic means used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.
What is -ic in Hindi?
-ic in Hindi is इक (ik). See -ic meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is -ic?
-ic is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -ic?
-ic is pronounced /ɪk/ (UK).

Words near -ic in the dictionary

  1. -iatry
  2. -ibilities
  3. -ibility
  4. -ible
  5. -ibly
  6. -ic
  7. -ica
  8. -ical
  9. -icam
  10. -icase
  11. -ication

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -ic (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: “-ic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-ic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.