octo-

1. variant of octa-:

   octosyllabic.

octo-

combining_form

1. eight

   octosyllabic

   octagon

Word History and Origins

Origin of octo-¹

from Latin octo, Greek okto

Example Sentences

Sarisberiensis policraticum, sive de nugis curialium et vestigiis philosophorum, libri octo.

From Project Gutenberg

Erat enim hc femina maritata, viginti quatuor annos nata, qu filium pepererat quem vidi ipse, octo jam annos natum.

From Project Gutenberg

An example of this occurs on a copy of Whittington, De octo partibus orationis, London, 1521.

From Project Gutenberg

The "Confessio" is written in octo-syllabic couplets, with four accents.

From Project Gutenberg

In 1647 he published the treatise De vita, moribus, et doctrina Epicuri libri octo.

From Project Gutenberg

Words That Use octo-

What does octo- mean?

Octo- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “eight.” It is used in a great many scientific and technical terms.

Octo- comes from te Greek oktṓ, meaning “eight.” The Latin equivalent, which is almost identical in spelling and pronunciation, is octō.

What are variants of octo-?

When combined with words or word elements that begin with a vowel, octo- becomes oct-, as in octane. Another variant of octo- is octa-, as in octastyle. Want to know more? Check out our Words That Use entries for both oct- and octa-.

Examples of octo-

An example of a word you may have encountered that features octo- is octopus, an animal “having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.” Octopus comes from Greek oktṓpous, which uses the equivalent of the form octo-.

The octo- portion of the word means “eight,” but the -pus part means “footed,” from Greek poús. Octopus literally translates to “eight-footed.”

What are some words that use the combining form octo-?

• octocentenary
• octofoil
• octogenarian (using the equivalent form of octo- in Latin)
• octometer
• octonary (using the equivalent form of octo- in Latin)
• octosyllable (using the equivalent form of octo- in Latin)

What are some other forms that octo- may be commonly confused with?

• oc-
• oculo-
• ocy-
• oleo-
• ont-
• onto-
• opto-
• oto-
• oxo-

Break it down!

Centenary means “a period of 100 years.” With this in mind, what is an octocentenary?