"-esce" meaning in English

See -esce in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Suffix

IPA: /-ˈɛs/ Forms: -esces [present, singular, third-person], -escing [participle, present], -esced [participle, past], -esced [past]
Etymology: From Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix). Compare -ish (Etymology 2). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|la|-ēscō|pos=an inchoative suffix|t=to grow, become a certain way}} Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix) Head templates: {{en-verb}} -esce (verb-forming suffix, third-person singular simple present -esces, present participle -escing, simple past and past participle -esced)
  1. Used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from Latin verbs ending in -esco Tags: morpheme Related terms (other terms ending in -esce): coalesce, convalesce, deliquesce, effervesce, evanesce, luminesce Related terms (suffixes): -escence (english: and its derivatives), -escent (english: and its derivatives)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ēscō",
        "pos": "an inchoative suffix",
        "t": "to grow, become a certain way"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix). Compare -ish (Etymology 2).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "-esces",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-escing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-esced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-esced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "-esce (verb-forming suffix, third-person singular simple present -esces, present participle -escing, simple past and past participle -esced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -escence",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -escent",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages using catfix",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from Latin verbs ending in -esco"
      ],
      "id": "en--esce-en-suffix-6RrhYRVj",
      "links": [
        [
          "-esco",
          "-esco#Latin"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "coalesce"
        },
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "convalesce"
        },
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "deliquesce"
        },
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "effervesce"
        },
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "evanesce"
        },
        {
          "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
          "word": "luminesce"
        },
        {
          "english": "and its derivatives",
          "sense": "suffixes",
          "translation": "and its derivatives",
          "word": "-escence"
        },
        {
          "english": "and its derivatives",
          "sense": "suffixes",
          "translation": "and its derivatives",
          "word": "-escent"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɛs/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-esce"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "-ēscō",
        "pos": "an inchoative suffix",
        "t": "to grow, become a certain way"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Latin -ēscō (“to grow, become a certain way”, an inchoative suffix). Compare -ish (Etymology 2).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "-esces",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-escing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-esced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "-esced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "-esce (verb-forming suffix, third-person singular simple present -esces, present participle -escing, simple past and past participle -esced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "related": [
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "coalesce"
    },
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "convalesce"
    },
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "deliquesce"
    },
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "effervesce"
    },
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "evanesce"
    },
    {
      "sense": "other terms ending in -esce",
      "word": "luminesce"
    },
    {
      "english": "and its derivatives",
      "sense": "suffixes",
      "translation": "and its derivatives",
      "word": "-escence"
    },
    {
      "english": "and its derivatives",
      "sense": "suffixes",
      "translation": "and its derivatives",
      "word": "-escent"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English links with manual fragments",
        "English suffixes",
        "English terms borrowed from Latin",
        "English terms derived from Latin",
        "English terms suffixed with -escence",
        "English terms suffixed with -escent",
        "English verb-forming suffixes",
        "Pages using catfix",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from Latin verbs ending in -esco"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "-esco",
          "-esco#Latin"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɛs/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-esce"
}

Download raw JSONL data for -esce meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1698",
  "msg": "unrecognized head form: verb-forming suffix",
  "path": [
    "-esce"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "suffix",
  "title": "-esce",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.