-ity

See also: -itý

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

Borrowed 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.

Alternative forms

• -ty
• ⠰⠽

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 sometimes spelling changes are seen, as with the suffix -ous, which when it combines with -ity produces the suffix -osity.
• While a final -c 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 terms suffixed with -ity

Related terms

• -ability, -ibility

Translations

Used to form nouns from adjectives.

• Armenian: -ություն (-utʻyun)
• Aromanian: -ãtati, -tati
• Bashkir: -лыҡ (-lıq), -лек (-lek), -лоҡ (-loq), -лөк (-lök)
• Catalan: -itat (ca) f, -tat (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 性 (zh) (xìng)

• Danish: -itet c, -hed (da) c
• Dutch: -heid (nl), -iteit (nl) f
• Finnish: -uus (fi), -iteetti
• French: -ité (fr) f, -té (fr) f
• Friulian: -itât, -tât
• Galician: -dade f, -idade (gl) f
• German: -ität (de) f
• Greek: -ότητα (el) f (-ótita)
• Hebrew: ־וּת f (-ut)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Indonesian: -itas (id)
• Interlingua: -itate (ia)
• Interlingue:
• Italian: -ità 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, -eață f, -ețe f, -ie f
• Russian: -ность f (-nostʹ), -ите́т (ru) m (-itét), -ство n (-stvo)
• Slovene: -nost f
• Spanish: -idad (es) f, -edad (es) f, -dad (es) f
• Swahili: u-
• Swedish: -het (sv) c
• Turkish: -lük (tr), -luk (tr), -lık (tr), -lik (tr)

See also

• -ness, -hood, -ship, -itas, -itude, -th, -ia, -itia, -ability, -ibility, -icity, -osity, -ous, -ose

Etymology 2

See -ety.

Suffix

-ity

1. Alternative form of -ety

   ‎hip + ‎-ity → ‎hippity, hippity-hopdisabilitynn