Word.ws English Dictionary

-ridden

/ˈɹɪdən/

-ridden suffix: figuratively construed as “repeatedly/perennially affected by” or “unable to escape from”.

Suffix

-ridden

  1. Figuratively construed as “repeatedly/perennially affected by” or “unable to escape from”.
    • crime + -ridden → crime-ridden
    • bug + -ridden → bug-ridden
    Synonyms:
    lousy with, riddled with, -riddled

Synonyms of -ridden

  • lousy with
  • riddled with
  • -riddled

Origin of -ridden

Back-formation from bedridden.

Questions about -ridden

What does -ridden mean?
-ridden means figuratively construed as “repeatedly/perennially affected by” or “unable to escape from”.
What part of speech is -ridden?
-ridden is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -ridden?
-ridden is pronounced /ˈɹɪdən/.

Words near -ridden in the dictionary

  1. -resse
  2. -retin
  3. -retin-
  4. -ribine
  5. -ric
  6. -ridden
  7. -riffic
  8. -rific
  9. -rinone
  10. -rise
  11. -ritide

Source and license

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