Word.ws English Dictionary

dys-

/dɪs/

dys- prefix: difficult.

Prefix

dys-

  1. difficult
    • dyschezia, dysacusis, dysbasia, dyslexia, dyscopia
  2. bad
    • dysphoria, dystopia
    1. unhealthy, harmful
      • dysaemia, dyscognitive
    2. painful
      • dysejaculation, dysuria
    3. incorrect
      • dysbalanced, dyschloremia, dysdifferentiation
    4. poor, deficient
      • dysgraphia, dysphasia, dysoxic
  3. abnormal
    • dysgnathic, dysafferentation, dysesthesia
  4. to fail
    • dysautoregulation
    Synonyms:
    dis-, mis-
  5. inability, unable
    • dyscontrol, dysmetria
  6. malady, disease
    • dysendocrinism, dysexecutive, dysautonomia, dysbarism
  7. not
    • dysfluent
    Synonyms:
    a-, an-, i-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, mal-, non-, un-

Synonyms of dys-

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of dys-

Origin of dys-

From New Latin dys-, from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “hard, difficult, bad”). Often confused with the separately derived prefix dis-.

Questions about dys-

What does dys- mean?
Dys- means difficult.
What part of speech is dys-?
Dys- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce dys-?
Dys- is pronounced /dɪs/.

Words near dys- in the dictionary

  1. Dyrnesses
  2. dyrosaurid
  3. dyrosaurids
  4. Dyrrhachium
  5. Dyrring
  6. dys-
  7. dys-synchronies
  8. dys-synchrony
  9. dysacousia
  10. dysacuses
  11. dysacusis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dys- (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:

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