preposition

English

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Latin praepositio, from praeponere (to place before); prae (before) + ponere (to put, place); compare French préposition. (See position, and compare provost.) So called because it is usually placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.

Alternative forms

• præposition (archaic)

Pronunciation

• enPR: prĕp-ə-zĭsh'ən, IPA: /ˌprɛpəˈzɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

preposition (plural prepositions)

1. (grammar) Any of a closed class of non-inflecting words typically employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.
2. (obsolete) A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Robert Fabyan

     He made a long preposition and oration.

Hypernyms

• adposition

Coordinate terms

• circumposition
• postposition

Derived terms

terms derived from preposition (noun)

preposition of time preposition of place prepositional

prepositionally prepositional phrase

Related terms

terms related to preposition (noun)

prepose

prepositive

Translations

grammar: a type of word like "of, from, for, by"

• Afrikaans: voorsetsel (af)
• Arabic: جار (ar) (jārr) m, حرف جر (ar) (ḥarf jarr) m
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: կապ (hy) (kap) , նախդիր (hy) (naxdir) 
• Asturian: preposición (ast) f
• Azeri: sözönü (az)
• Belarusian: прыназоўнік (be) (prynazóŭnik) m 
• Breton: araogenn (br)
• Bulgarian: предлог (bg) (predlóg) m 
• Catalan: preposició (ca) f
• Chechen: предложени
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 介詞 (cmn), 介词 (cmn) (jiècí), 前置詞 (cmn), 前置词 (cmn) (qiánzhìcí)

• Czech: předložka (cs) f
• Danish: forholdsord (da), præposition (da)
• Dutch: voorzetsel (nl) n, kastwoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: prepozicio (eo)
• Estonian: eessõna (et)
• Finnish: prepositio (fi)
• French: préposition (fr)
• Galician: preposición (gl) f
• Georgian: წინდებული (ka) (cindebuli) 
• German: Präposition (de) f, Verhältniswort (de)
• Greek: πρόθεση (el) (próthesi) f 

  Ancient Greek: πρόθεσις (próthesis) f

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: ʻinaleo, ʻinawaena
• Hindi: पूर्वसर्ग (hi) (pūrvasarg)
• Hungarian: elöljárószó (hu)
• Icelandic: forsetning (is) f
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: kata depan
• Interlingua: preposition (ia)
• Interlingue: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: réamhfhocal (ga) m
• Italian: preposizione (it) f
• Japanese: 前置詞 (ja) (ぜんちし, zenchishi)
• Jèrriais: préposition f
• Kazakh: предлог (kk) (predlog) , демеулік (kk) (demewlik) 

• Khmer: ធ្នាក់ (km) (thneak)
• Kinyarwanda: please add this translation if you can
• Kirundi: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 전치사 (ko) (jeonchisa) (前置詞 (ko))
• Kurdish: daçek (ku) f
• Kyrgyz: предлог (ky) (predlog) 
• Latin: praepositio (la) f
• Latvian: prievārds (lv) m
• Lithuanian: prielinksnis (lt) m
• Macedonian: предлог (mk) (prédlog) m
• Malay: kata depan (ms)
• Norwegian: preposisjon (no) m
• Novial: prepositione
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: حرف اضافه (fa) (harf-e ezâfe)
• Polish: przyimek (pl) m
• Portuguese: preposição (pt) f
• Romanian: prepoziție (ro) f
• Russian: предлог (ru) (predlóg) m 
• Scottish Gaelic: roimhear (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: предлог (sh) m, приједлог (sh) m, препозиција (sh) f

  Roman: predlog (sh) m, prijedlog (sh) m, prepozicija (sh) f

• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: predložka (sk) f
• Slovene: prêdlog (sl) m
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: preposición (es) f
• Swedish: preposition (sv) c
• Thai: คำบุพบท (th) (kam bùp-pá-bòt)
• Turkish: ilgeç (tr), edat (tr)
• Turkmen: prepozisiýa (tk)
• Ukrainian: прийменник (uk) (pryjménnyk) m 
• Vietnamese: giới từ (vi) (介詞 (vi))
• Volapük: präpod (vo)
• West Frisian: ferhâldingswurd (fy) n
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

See also

• preverb

Etymology 2

From pre- + position

Alternative forms

• pre-position

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpriːpəˌzɪʃən/

Verb

preposition (third-person singular simple present prepositions, present participle prepositioning, simple past and past participle prepositioned)

1. To place in a location before some other event occurs.

   It is important to preposition the material before turning on the machine.

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Finnish

Noun

preposition

1. Genitive singular form of prepositio.

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Interlingua

Noun

preposition (plural prepositiones)

1. (grammar) A word that is used in conjunction with a noun or pronoun in order to form a phrase.

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Swedish

Noun

preposition c

1. a preposition (part of speech)

Declension

Declension of preposition

	singular		plural
Common	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	preposition	prepositionen	prepositioner	prepositionerna
genitive	prepositions	prepositionens	prepositioners	prepositionernas

Related terms

• prepositionell
• prepositionsadverbial
• prepositionsattribut
• prepositionsuttryck

References

• preposition in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)