Word.ws English Dictionary

de-

More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations

stressed/dɛ/unstressed/də/

de- prefix: reversal, undoing.

Prefix (1)

de-

  1. reversal, undoing
    • de- + couple → decouple
    • de- + align → dealign
    Synonyms:
    un-, dis-, in-
  2. to remove from, removed
    • de- + bus → debus
    • de- + bark → debark
    Synonyms:
    des-, un-
  3. Intensifying
    • de- + fraud → defraud
    • de- + complex → decomplex
  4. derived from, of
    • de- + substantival → desubstantival
    • de- + verbal → deverbal
  5. down, downward
    • de- + scando → descend
    • de- + press → depress

Prefix (2) capitalized: De-

De-

  1. (US, African-American Vernacular) Unisex prefix used in African-American given names.
    • De- + Shawna → DeShawna
    • De- + Angelo → DeAngelo

de- meaning in Persian and Vietnamese

de- in Persian

reversal, undoing or removing
وا vâ-

de- in Vietnamese

reversal, undoing or removing
phi

Examples of de- in a sentence

  • de- + baptize → debaptize
  • de- + benzylate → debenzylate
  • de- + arterialization → dearterialization
  • de- + numerate → denumerate
  • de- + pauperize → depauperize
  • de- + prostrate → deprostrate

Synonyms of de-

Antonyms

Origin of de-

From Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (“of”, “from”). For sense development, compare Old English æf-, which was a similar prefix.

Words formed from de-

Questions about de-

What does de- mean?
De- means reversal, undoing.
What is de- in Persian?
De- in Persian is وا (vâ-). See De- meaning in Persian.
How do you use de- in a sentence?
de- + baptize → debaptize
What part of speech is de-?
De- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce de-?
De- is pronounced /dɛ/ (stressed).

Words near de- in the dictionary

  1. De Wolden
  2. De Young
  3. De'ang
  4. De'Ath
  5. De'Marion
  6. de-
  7. de-acousmatization
  8. de-adapt
  9. de-adapted
  10. de-adapting
  11. de-adapts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: de- (page history and authors); De- (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-de-.wav.

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