-ine

See also: ine, Ine, iné, and ìne

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English -ine, borrowed from Old French -ine, from Latin -īnus, from Ancient Greek -ινος (-inos). More at -en.

Suffix

-ine

1. (chiefly non-productive) Of or pertaining to.

   asinine, marine, bovine, cervine

2. Used to form demonyms.

   Levantine, Byzantine, Argentine

3. (chemistry) Used to form names of chemical substances, especially basic (alkaline) substances, alkaloidal substances, or halogen elements.

   amine, aniline, caffeine, iodine

4. (non-productive) Used to form feminine nouns.

   ‎hero + ‎-ine → ‎heroine

   ‎speaker + ‎-ine → ‎speakerine

5. (non-productive) Used to form female given names or names of titles.

   ‎Clement + ‎-ine → ‎Clementine

   ‎landgrave + ‎-ine → ‎landgravine

6. Commercial materials

   ‎glass + ‎-ine → ‎glassine

Derived terms

► English words suffixed with -ine

Related terms

• -in

Translations

used to form names of chemical substances

• Catalan: -ina (ca) f
• Galician: -ina (gl) f
• Italian: -ina f

• Portuguese: -ina (pt) f
• Spanish: -ina (es) f

Etymology 2

Variant of -en.

Suffix

-ine

1. Can be used to denote the plural form of a small number of English words:

   ‎cow + ‎-ine → ‎kine

   ‎sow + ‎-ine → ‎swine

References

• “-ine” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “-ine” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Anagrams

• EIN, NEI, NIE, Nie

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French

Etymology

-in +‎ -e

Suffix

-ine

1. feminine singular of -in
2. female equivalent of -in

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Irish

Suffix

-ine f

1. genitive of -in

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Italian

Suffix

-ine f pl

1. plural of -ina

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Latin

Suffix

-īne

1. vocative masculine singular of -īnus