English Explanatory Dictionary

-faction

English dictionary entry

Meanings

suffix
  1. The act of creating something, or (more broadly) any process involving the specified thing.

Word forms

-faction

Etymology

Borrowed from French -faction, from Latin -factiō. This is the ending that arises when forming action nouns using -tiō (equivalent to English -tion) from compound verbs ending in -faciō (“to make, to do”), which carry a causative meaning. For example, liqueō (“to be liquid”) + faciō > liquefaciō (“to make (something) liquid”) > liquefactiō > English liquefaction. The suffix was later applied to other Latin stems where no Latin verb in -faciō existed (e.g. lubrifaction) and, eventually, even more freely (but see usage notes). Compare -ification and -ication.

Derived words

benefaction dissatisfaction labefaction liquefaction olfaction petrifaction putrefaction rarefaction satisfaction self-satisfaction stupefaction tepefaction torrefaction tumefaction
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on - Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary