de-

pref.

1. Do or make the opposite of; reverse: decriminalize.
2. Remove or remove from: delouse; deoxygenate.
3. Out of: deplane; defenestration.
4. Reduce; degrade: declass.
5. Derived from: deverbative.

[Middle English de-, from Old French de- (from Latin dē-, from, off, apart, away, down, out, completely , from dē) or from Old French des-, out, off, apart, away, completely (from Latin dis-, dis- , and Latin dē-).]

View more Health videos

is a highly active suffix in current English, forming verbs and their derivatives. Notable 20th century examples (with date of first record indicated) include: debrief (1942), decaffeinate (1927), decertify (1918), decommunize (1980), de-emphasize (1938), de-escalate (1964), denet (1962), deregulate (1964, with deregulation 1963). Note that a hyphen is usual when the second element begins with an e; in other cases it is optional.

Previous:	de rigueur, de luxe, day, month, week, year
Next:	dead letter, deaf mute, deal noun

For a list of words related to de-, see:

• Prefixes - de-: negation (dehumidify)

---

Dansk (Danish)
pref. - de-, ned-, bort-, helt-, total-

Français (French)
pref. - (préf) de- signifiant le contraire de, l'inverse de, retirer de, en dehors de, réduire, abaisser, dérivé de

Deutsch (German)
pref. - ent, ver, aus, des, ab, entgegengesetzt, entfernen, verbilligen, entwürdigen, abgeleitet

Ελληνική (Greek)
pref. - (στερητικό πρόθεμα) από-, εκ-, ξε-

Español (Spanish)
pref. - de

Svenska (Swedish)
pref. - de-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
离开, 完全, 低下, 否定

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
pref. - 離開, 完全, 低下, 否定

한국어 (Korean)
pref. - (분리, 부정, 강하, 역전) 등의 뜻

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(بادئه الكلم- ه) بادئه معناها العكس أو النقيض‏

עברית (Hebrew)
pref. - ‮הפוך ל-, חסר-, אי-, משולל, (קידומת), פחות, בלי, נובע מ-‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.