Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

out- en · X

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úd Proto-Germanic *ūt Proto-Germanic *ūt- Old English ūt- Middle English ut- English out- From Middle English ut-, from Old English ūt- (“out, without, outside”) (also as ūta-, ūtan- (“from or on the outside, without”), as in ūtanweard (“outward, external”)), from Proto-Germanic *ūt- (“out-”). Cognate with Dutch uit-, German aus-, Swedish ut-, Icelandic út-. More at out.

Meanings

  1. (morpheme) External to, on the outside of
    • outhouse
    • outback
  2. (morpheme) Toward the outside of, away from
    • outlead
    • outflee
    • outcast
  3. (morpheme) Forms verbs with the sense of surpassing or exceeding the prefixed word. This construction is productive.
    • It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
    • outdo
    • outlast
    • outmaneuver
    • She was nobody when he married her, barely the daughter of a gentleman; but ever since her being turned into a Churchill she has out-Churchill’d them all in high and mighty claims: but in herself, I assure you, she is an upstart. 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 345:
    • With a few honorable exceptions it out-Descartesed Descartes […] 2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 124:
  4. (morpheme) Greater than
    • outsize
    • outrun
    • outgrow
    • By the end of the competition, Lisa's plant had outgrown its competitors, winning the competition.
  5. (morpheme) Beyond
    • The plant's leaves outgrew their box
  6. (morpheme) Completely
    • outfit
    • outwork

Antonyms

in- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · ento- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · end- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · im- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · intra- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · endo- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · em- (antonym(s) of “outside”) · en- (antonym(s) of “outside”)

Synonyms

extra- (beyond) · apo- (away from) · hyper- (beyond) · away (away from) · para- (beyond) · ultra- (beyond) · ab- (away from) · de- (away from) · off- (away from) · supra- (greater than) · preter- (beyond) · supra- (surpassing; loose sense) · trans- (beyond) · ecto- (outside) · exo- (outside) · off (away from) · ex- (outside)

Translations (7)

pl ponad- (surpassing or greater than) · pl poza- (outside) · es aventajar (surpassing or greater than) · es ventajear (surpassing or greater than) · es vencer en (surpassing or greater than) · es superar (surpassing or greater than) · es superar en (surpassing or greater than)