Word.ws English Dictionary

even-

even- prefix: even in number, not odd.

Prefix

even-

  1. Even in number, not odd.
    • even-toed, even-numbered, Even-even nucleus
  2. (idiomatic) Uniform, evenly in quantity.
    • even-down, even-tempered, even-toned

Origin of even-

From Middle English even-, efen-, from Old English efn- (“equal, fellow-, co-”), from Proto-West Germanic *ebna- (“like-, level, equal-”, prefix/combining form), from Proto-Germanic *ebnaz (“equal, even”); same as Old English efn (“equal, even, level”). More at even. Cognate with Scots evin- (“equal-”), Old Frisian ivin-, evn- (“even-”), Dutch even-, Old High German eban- (“even-”).

Questions about even-

What does even- mean?
Even- means even in number, not odd.
What part of speech is even-?
Even- is a prefix.

Words near even- in the dictionary

  1. even then
  2. even though
  3. even up
  4. even working
  5. even workings
  6. even-
  7. even-bishop
  8. even-bishops
  9. even-christian
  10. even-christians
  11. even-down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: even- (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.

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