Word.ws English Dictionary

ecto-

/ɛktoʊ-/

ecto- prefix: outside.

Prefix

ecto-

  1. Outside.
    Synonyms:
    out-, ex-, exo-
    Antonyms:
    in-, intra-, en-/em-/im-, end-/endo-/ento-
  2. Ghost-related.
    • ecto-blaster, ectometer
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:ecto-.

Synonyms of ecto-

Antonyms

Origin of ecto-

From Ancient Greek ἐκτός (ektós, “outside”). Sense 2 ("ghost-related") is a reinterpretation of this prefix in the word ectoplasm (“paranormal substance believed to be involved in the materialization of the dead”), for the etymology of which see there.

Questions about ecto-

What does ecto- mean?
Ecto- means outside.
What part of speech is ecto-?
Ecto- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce ecto-?
Ecto- is pronounced /ɛktoʊ-/ (US).

Words near ecto- in the dictionary

  1. ecthymatous
  2. ectinosomatid
  3. ectinosomatids
  4. ectinosomid
  5. ectinosomids
  6. ecto-
  7. ecto-blaster
  8. ecto-mist
  9. ecto-mists
  10. ectoanthropochory
  11. ectoantigen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ecto- (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)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-ecto-.wav.

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