Word.ws English Dictionary

to-

to- prefix: parting: forming verbs that involve cleaving, breaking, or sundering.

Prefix (1)

to-

  1. (idiomatic) Parting: forming verbs that involve cleaving, breaking, or sundering.
    • tocrack
    • togrind
  2. (idiomatic) To do excessively.
    • tobeat
    • topinch
  3. (idiomatic) Completely.
    • tobruise
    • toreave
  4. (idiomatic) Moving.
    • tolug
    • towind

Prefix (2)

to-

  1. Current, the current form of the suffixed time. Forming nouns.
    • today
    • tonight
  2. On (this) time, which is a fixed point in time. Forming adverbs.
    • today
    • tomorrow
  3. During the suffixed time. Forming adverbs.
    • today
    • tonight
  4. Of, as characteristic of the suffixed time period. Forming adverbs and adjectives.
    • today
    • together
  5. At, at the suffixed time. Forming an unfixed point in time, rather than a duration.
    • tomorrow
    • tofall
  6. Adding, additional in quantity.
    • to-bread
    • to-name
  7. Toward in direction or location.
    • to-draw
    • tofall

Origin of to-

From Middle English to-, from Old English tō-, te- (“apart, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *tō-, *tuʀ-, *twiʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *twiz- (“apart, in two”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“two-ways, in twain”).

From to.

Words formed from to-

Questions about to-

What does to- mean?
To- means parting: forming verbs that involve cleaving, breaking, or sundering.
What part of speech is to-?
To- is a prefix.

Words near to- in the dictionary

  1. to write home about
  2. to your health
  3. To'a
  4. to't
  5. to've
  6. to-
  7. to-and-fro
  8. to-and-fros
  9. to-be
  10. to-bread
  11. to-breads

Source and license

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