Word.ws English Dictionary

for-

/fɔː(ɹ)/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

unstressed/fə(ɹ)/

for- prefix: forth: prefixed to verbs to indicate a direction of 'away', 'off', 'forth'. Also the alternative form of fore-.

Prefix (1)

for-

  1. (idiomatic) Forth: prefixed to verbs to indicate a direction of 'away', 'off', 'forth'.
    • forsteal
    • forloppin
  2. (idiomatic) Exhausting: prefixed to verbs with the sense of wearing or exhausting oneself.
    • forsing
    • forwander
  3. (idiomatic) Destructively: prefixed to verbs with the sense of destruction or pain.
    • forhang
    • forthink
  4. (idiomatic) Wrongly: prefixed to verbs with the sense of wrongly, amorally.
    • forteach
    • forswear
  5. (idiomatic) Neglectfully: prefixed to verbs with the sense of abstaining from or neglecting.
    • forslip
    • forslug
  6. (idiomatic) Very: intensifying adjectives.
    • forblack
    • forswollen
  7. (idiomatic) Making: prefixed to verbs to indicate the subject takes the character of the verb.
    • fordote
    • forguilt
  8. (idiomatic) Excessively: prefixed to verbs with the sense of doing so in excessive or overwhelm.
    • forwax
    • forgrow
  9. (idiomatic) Excluding: prefixed to verbs to give the sense of prohibition or exclusion.
    • forjudge
    • forshut
  10. (idiomatic) Intensively
    • forbeat
    • fordread
  11. (idiomatic) Thoroughly: prefixed to verbs with the sense of thoroughly, all over.
    • forgrow
    • forbathe

Prefix (2)

for-

  1. (rare) Outside, out.
    • foreclose
    • forprise

Also used as

for- is also the alternative form of fore-.

Forms of for-

alternative formfore-

Origin of for-

From Middle English for-, vor-, ver-, from Old English for-, fer-, fær-, fyr- (“far, away, completely”, prefix), from the merger of Proto-Germanic *fra- ("away, away from"; see fro, from) and Proto-Germanic *fur-, *far- (“through, completely, fully”), from Proto-Indo-European *pro-, *per-, *pr-. Cognate with Scots for-, West Frisian fer-, for-, Dutch ver-, German ver-, Swedish för-, Danish for-, Norwegian for-, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰- (fra-), Latin pro-. More at for.

From Old English for-, which is identical with the preposition "for". In "Old English and Middle English it occurs frequently as a variant of fore- prefix, with the senses ‘before’, ‘in front’, ‘on behalf of’, etc.; cf. Old English for-, forecuman to come before, Middle English forganger and foreganger n."

"Occurring only in words adopted from French, as forcatch v., forfeit n., forprise n., represents Old French for-, fors-, identical with fors adv. (modern French hors) outside, out."

Words formed from for-

Questions about for-

What does for- mean?
For- means forth: prefixed to verbs to indicate a direction of 'away', 'off', 'forth'.
What part of speech is for-?
For- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce for-?
For- is pronounced /fɔː(ɹ)/.

Words near for- in the dictionary

  1. for your information
  2. for'ard
  3. for'ead
  4. for'eads
  5. for't
  6. for-
  7. for-pay
  8. for-profit
  9. for-profits
  10. for-real
  11. for-than

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for- (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: “for-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/for-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.