Word.ws English Dictionary

-ier

-ier suffix: spelling of the suffix sequence -y followed by -er, or of any word ending in -(e)y suffixed with -er.

Suffix (1)

-ier

  1. spelling of the suffix sequence -y followed by -er, or of any word ending in -(e)y suffixed with -er.
    • dicey → dicier; clayey → clayier; gluey → gluier; happy → happier; scary → scarier; tomatoey → tomatoier

Suffix (2)

-ier

  1. Forming nouns denoting occupations, particularly with words from French.
    • clothier, perfumier

Origin of -ier

From -y + -er.

From Middle English -ier, -iere from verbs ending in -ien + -ere, later extended to form other nouns (e.g. Middle English clothyer, glasiere, lovier, tiliere). Later reinforced by Middle French and modern French -ier, largely in words more recently borrowed from or influenced by French (e.g. cashier, financier, etc.). Doublet of -ar, -ary, -eer, and -yer.

Questions about -ier

What does -ier mean?
-ier means spelling of the suffix sequence -y followed by -er, or of any word ending in -(e)y suffixed with -er.
What part of speech is -ier?
-ier is a suffix.

Words near -ier in the dictionary

  1. -ido
  2. -ie
  3. -ied
  4. -ienne
  5. -iennes
  6. -ier
  7. -ies
  8. -iest
  9. -iety
  10. -ifene
  11. -iferous

Source and license

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