Word.ws English Dictionary

-ical

/ɪkəl/

-ical suffix: used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning "of or pertaining to"; adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. Often added to words of Greek or Latin origin, but used with other words also.

Suffix

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

  1. Used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning "of or pertaining to"; adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. Often added to words of Greek or Latin origin, but used with other words also.
    • mythical, quizzical, theistical, whimsical

Forms of -ical

comparativemore -ical
superlativemost -ical

Origin of -ical

From Middle English -ical, a combination of -ic from Old French -ique, from Latin -icus, related to Ancient Greek suffix Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), plus -al from Latin adjective suffix -alis, or Old French -el. By surface analysis, -ic + -al.

Questions about -ical

What does -ical mean?
-ical means used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning "of or pertaining to"; adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. Often added to words of Greek or Latin origin, but used with other words also.
What part of speech is -ical?
-ical is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -ical?
-ical is pronounced /ɪkəl/.

Words near -ical in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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