Word.ws English Dictionary

anti-

Syllables: an·ti/ˈænˌti//ˈæn.ti/

anti- prefix: against, opposed to. Also the obsolete form of ante-.

Prefix

anti-

  1. Against, opposed to.
    • anti- + abortion → antiabortion
    • anti- + racism → antiracism
    Synonyms:
    counter-
    Antonyms:
    pro-
  2. Counteracting, neutralizing.
    • anti- + aircraft → antiaircraft
    • anti- + freeze → antifreeze
    Synonyms:
    counter-
  3. The opposite of what is typically expected.
    • anti- + hero → antihero (“a protagonist who acts in an unheroic manner”)
    • anti- + climax → anticlimax (“a failed or reverse climax”)
  4. Physically opposite, reverse in position or direction.
    • anti- + clockwise → anticlockwise
    • anti- + Arctic → Antarctic
  5. A rival or counterpart to.
    • anti- + pope → antipope (“a person who claims to be the real pope”)
    • anti- + Christ → Antichrist
  6. (particle) Composed of antimatter.
    • anti- + electron → antielectron
    • anti- + galaxy → antigalaxy
  7. Reacting with immunoglobins found in the specified animal.
    • anti- + rabbit → antirabbit
    • anti- + horse → antihorse

Also used as

anti- is also the obsolete form of ante-.

anti- meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Persian and Vietnamese

anti- in Tamil

against, hostile to
எதிர் etir

anti- in Arabic

against, hostile to
ضِدّ ḍidd, مُضَادّ muḍādd, نَقِيض naqīḍ

anti- in Persian

against, hostile to
آنتی ânti-, پادـ pâd-

anti- in Vietnamese

against, hostile to
chống

Examples of anti- in a sentence

  • anti- + bacterial → antibacterial
  • anti- + chess → antichess (“a variant of chess where the goal is to lose all of one's pieces”)

Synonyms of anti-

Antonyms

Origin of anti-

From Ancient Greek ἀντι- (anti-, “against”). Cognate with Old English and- (“against, in return, back, un-”), German ent- (“off, away, un-”). Doublet of ante- and un-.

Probably largely from association with etymology 1, either in English or in French, although some early formations (especially antichamber) reflect Italian anti-.

Questions about anti-

What does anti- mean?
Anti- means against, opposed to.
What is anti- in Tamil?
Anti- in Tamil is எதிர் (etir). See Anti- meaning in Tamil.
How do you use anti- in a sentence?
anti- + bacterial → antibacterial
What part of speech is anti-?
Anti- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce anti-?
Anti- is pronounced /ˈænˌti/ (UK).

Words near anti- in the dictionary

  1. anthypnotics
  2. anthypophora
  3. anti
  4. anti skub
  5. anti'l
  6. anti-
  7. anti-abolitionism
  8. anti-abortion
  9. anti-abortionism
  10. anti-abortionist
  11. anti-abortionists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anti- (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)-Pvanp7-anti-.wav, En-us-anti-.wav.

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