Word.ws English Dictionary

alder-

/ˈɔldɚ//ˈɔːldə/

alder- prefix: of all; having the greatest degree of something, prefixed to superlative adjectives and adverbs.

Prefix

alder-

  1. (obsolete) Of all; having the greatest degree of something, prefixed to superlative adjectives and adverbs.
    • alder- + liefest → alderliefest (“dearest of all”)
    • alder- + best → alderbest (“best of all”)

Forms of alder-

alternative formaller-
alternative formallur-
alternative formaldyr-
alternative formalther-

Origin of alder-

Inherited from Middle English alder-, from Old English ealra, genitive plural of eall (“all”). Compare German aller-, Dutch aller-, Old Norse allra. For the epenthetic /d/, compare with the development of unrelated alder.

Questions about alder-

What does alder- mean?
Alder- means of all; having the greatest degree of something, prefixed to superlative adjectives and adverbs.
What part of speech is alder-?
Alder- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce alder-?
Alder- is pronounced /ˈɔːldə/ (UK).

Words near alder- in the dictionary

  1. alder carr
  2. alder carrs
  3. alder moth
  4. alder moths
  5. Alder's razor
  6. alder-
  7. alder-liefest
  8. Alder.
  9. Alderamin
  10. alderbest
  11. Alderbury

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alder- (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-alder.wav.

Cite this entry: “alder-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alder-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.