Word.ws English Dictionary

i-

i- prefix: used to form past participles of verbs. Alternative spelling of y-.

Prefix (1)

i-

  1. (obsolete) Used to form past participles of verbs. Alternative spelling of y-.

Prefix (2)

i-

  1. A form of the prefix in-, used before gn, as in ignoble, ignominy, and ignore.
    Synonyms:
    a-, an-, dys-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, mal-, non-, un-

Prefix (3)

i-

  1. (Jamaica) Used to transform English words into words used by Rastafarians with a special meaning.

Prefix (4)

i-

  1. Pertaining to the Internet.
  2. Pertaining to digital devices and computer programs, especially those that are cutting-edge or fashionable, and those from Apple.
    • i- + pod → iPod
    • i- + phone → iPhone

Prefix (5)

i-

  1. Pertaining to computerized, electronic, digital, intelligent controls in products

Synonyms of i-

Origin of i-

From Middle English i-, y-, ȝe-, from Old English ġe-, from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱó-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with, near, by, along”). Cognate with Dutch ge-, Low German ge-, je-, e-, German ge-.

From Latin i-, assimilated form of in- used before gn-.

From Internet. Popularized in the name of the iMac line of computers (1998).

Questions about i-

What does i- mean?
I- means used to form past participles of verbs. Alternative spelling of y-.
What part of speech is i-?
I- is a prefix.

Words near i- in the dictionary

  1. I've got your nose
  2. I've lost my keys
  3. I've never heard it called that before
  4. I'ven't
  5. i+1
  6. i-
  7. i-adjective
  8. i-adjectives
  9. i-banking
  10. I-bar
  11. I-bars

Source and license

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