"preformative" meaning in English

See preformative in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Etymology: From pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + formative, modelled after Late Latin praeformativus (originally used in relation to the grammar of Semitic languages). Etymology templates: {{glossary|prefix}} prefix, {{prefix|en|pre|formative|pos1=prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’}} pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + formative, {{cog|LL.|praeformativus}} Late Latin praeformativus Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} preformative (not comparable)
  1. Of or pertaining to preformation. Tags: not-comparable
    Sense id: en-preformative-en-adj-9bf-yh0d
  2. Of a thing: forming or affecting something that comes later. Tags: not-comparable
    Sense id: en-preformative-en-adj-YlZcwTmD Categories (other): English terms prefixed with pre- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with pre-: 8 17 37 38
  3. (grammar, chiefly in Semitic languages) of a letter, syllable, etc.: attached to the beginning of a word as a formative element. Tags: not-comparable Translations (of a letter, syllable, etc.: attached to the beginning of a word as a formative element): präformativ (German)
    Sense id: en-preformative-en-adj-nZ3XGekv Categories (other): Grammar, English terms prefixed with pre-, Semitic linguistics Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with pre-: 8 17 37 38 Disambiguation of Semitic linguistics: 0 6 45 24 25 Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences Disambiguation of 'of a letter, syllable, etc.: attached to the beginning of a word as a formative element': 1 1 99
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

Forms: preformatives [plural]
Etymology: From pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + formative, modelled after Late Latin praeformativus (originally used in relation to the grammar of Semitic languages). Etymology templates: {{glossary|prefix}} prefix, {{prefix|en|pre|formative|pos1=prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’}} pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + formative, {{cog|LL.|praeformativus}} Late Latin praeformativus Head templates: {{en-noun}} preformative (plural preformatives)
  1. (chiefly in Semitic languages) a formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word. Synonyms: preformant Related terms: preforming Coordinate_terms: afformative Translations (formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word): Präformativ (German), Präformativum [archaic, neuter] (German), praeformativus (Latin)
    Sense id: en-preformative-en-noun-Bne25Fcv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with pre-, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with German translations, Terms with Latin translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 5 5 25 36 28 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with pre-: 8 17 37 38 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 8 12 22 58 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 3 5 10 44 38 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 4 8 44 42 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 6 13 22 59 Disambiguation of Terms with Latin translations: 6 8 19 68
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

Forms: preformatives [plural]
Etymology: In many cases merely a typo; less commonly, sometimes due to a misapprehension of morphology. Head templates: {{en-noun}} preformative (plural preformatives)
  1. Misspelling of performative. Tags: alt-of, misspelling Alternative form of: performative Related terms: preform [common, misspelling], preformance [common, misspelling]
    Sense id: en-preformative-en-noun-tbb-lNaV Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 3 5 10 44 38 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 4 8 44 42
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

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          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word",
          "tags": [
            "archaic",
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Präformativum"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "lang_code": "la",
          "sense": "formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word",
          "word": "praeformativus"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
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        }
      ]
    }
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        "archaic",
        "neuter"
      ],
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    },
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    }
  ],
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    {
      "code": "de",
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      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "of a letter, syllable, etc.: attached to the beginning of a word as a formative element",
      "word": "präformativ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "preformative"
}

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  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
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      ],
      "categories": [
        "English misspellings"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Misspelling of performative."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "performative",
          "performative#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "misspelling"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "preformative"
}

Download raw JSONL data for preformative meaning in English (6.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-09-27 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-09-20 using wiktextract (fc15ba6 and 1ab82da). 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.