Word.ws English Dictionary

-yer

-yer suffix: agent suffix, equivalent to -er, appended to some nouns (especially those ending in the letter "w" or "v").

Suffix

-yer

  1. (idiomatic, rare, usually) Agent suffix, equivalent to -er, appended to some nouns (especially those ending in the letter "w" or "v").
    • law + -yer → lawyer (AmE /ˈlɔɪər/)
    • saw + -yer → sawyer /ˈsɔːjər/

Origin of -yer

Inherited from Middle English -iere, probably from -ien (infinitival suffix) + -ere (agent noun); i.e. nouns in -ere built on verbs in -ien; possibly reinforced by Old French -ier once -ie- became a rising diphthong. More at -ier, -er.

Questions about -yer

What does -yer mean?
-yer means agent suffix, equivalent to -er, appended to some nouns (especially those ending in the letter "w" or "v").
What part of speech is -yer?
-yer is a suffix.

Words near -yer in the dictionary

  1. -xeny
  2. -ximab
  3. -xizu-
  4. -xor
  5. -y
  6. -yer
  7. -yl
  8. -ylene
  9. -ylidene
  10. -yne
  11. -z

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -yer (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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