-ity

English

Alternative forms

• -ty
• ⠰⠽

Etymology

From French -ité, from Middle French -ité, from Old French -ete, -eteit (“-ity”), from Latin -itātem, from -itās, from Proto-Indo-European *-it- (suffix). Cognate with Gothic -𐌹𐌸𐌰 (-iþa, “-th”), Old High German -ida (“-th”), Old English -þo, -þu, -þ (“-th”). More at -th.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɪtɪ]; but see the usage notes below

Suffix

-ity

1. Used to form a noun from an adjective; especially, to form the noun referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.
2. Used to form other nouns, especially abstract nouns.

Usage notes

• Many nouns formed with -ity are uncountable; those that are countable form their plurals in -ities.
• The addition of -ity to an adjective results in a shift of stress to the antepenultimate syllable; that is, words in -ity are stressed on the last syllable before the -ity, even in cases where this syllable is part of another suffix (as in words in -ability and -icity). Further, this shift typically results in a change in vowel quality; compare, for example, real and reality, where the sound [æ] in the second word is not present in the first. These vowel quality changes are usually consistent with the spelling of both forms — note that the letter <a> in the second word is present in the first — but is pronounced [k], before -ity it becomes [s]; compare, for example, elastic and elasticity.
• Final -e is dropped before adding this suffix.

Derived terms

► English words suffixed with -ity

Translations

Used to form nouns from adjectives.

• Armenian: -ություն (-utʿyun)
• Catalan: -itat f, -tat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 性 (zh) (xìng)

• Dutch: -heid (nl), -iteit (nl) f
• French: -ité (fr) f, -té (fr) f
• Galician: -dade f, -idade f
• German: -ität (de) f
• Greek: -ότητα (el) f (-ótita)
• Hebrew: ־וּת f (-ut)
• Italian: -ità f, -tà f
• Japanese: 性 (ja) (sei)

• Korean: 성 (ko) (seong)
• Latin: -itas f
• Malay: -iti, -itet, -itas, ke--an
• Portuguese: -idade (pt) f, -dade (pt) f
• Romanian: -itate f, -tate f, -ătate f
• Russian: -ность f (-nostʹ), -ите́т m (-itét)
• Slovene: -nost f
• Spanish: -idad (es) f, -edad (es) f, -dad (es) f
• Swahili: u-
• Swedish: -het (sv) c
• Turkish: -lük, -luk (tr), -lık, -lik

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the template {{sense|"gloss"}}, substituting a short version of the definition for "gloss".

• (used to form nouns from adjectives): -ness, -hood, -ship, -itas, -itude, -th, -ia, -itia, -ability, -ibility, -icity, -osity, -ous, -ose