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definitions

-cle

1

a suffix found in French loanwords of Latin origin, originally diminutive nouns, and later in adaptations of words borrowed directly from Latin or in Neo-Latin coinages: article; conventicle; corpuscle; particle.

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Nearby words

  1. -cidal,
  2. -cide,
  3. -cion,
  4. -clase,
  5. -clasis,
  6. -cleisis,
  7. -cline,
  8. -clisis,
  9. -coccal,
  10. -coccus

Origin of -cle

1
< French, Old French < Latin -culus, -cula, -culum, variant of -ulus -ule with nouns of the 3rd, 4th and 5th declensions, usually with the same gender as the base noun

-cle

2

a suffix found in French loanwords of Latin origin, later in adaptations of words borrowed directly from Latin; in Latin, this suffix formed from verbs nouns that denoted a place appropriate to the action of the verb (cubicle, receptacle) or a means by which the action is performed (vehicle).

Origin of -cle

2
< French, Old French < Latin -culum, -cula < *-tlom, *-tlā
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for -cle

-cle

suffix forming nouns

indicating smallnesscubicle; particle

Word Origin for -cle

via Old French from Latin -culus. See -cule
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012