affix
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to stick, fasten, or attach something to something else.
v.to attach, fasten, or stick one thing to another. Transitive; requires a direct object and often takes the preposition 'to'.
Simple“You must affix a recent photograph to your visa application form.”
In context“The technician was instructed to affix the warning labels to the exterior of the machinery before it left the factory floor.”
UsageTypically used in administrative or technical contexts rather than casual conversation.
- 02 C1 Advanced
n.a group of letters added to the start or end of a word to change its meaning.
n.a bound morpheme attached to a stem or root to form a new word or word form. This category includes prefixes, suffixes, and infixes.
Simple“In the word 'unhappy', the letters 'un' are a negative affix.”
In context“The professor explained how the addition of a derivational affix can change a word's grammatical category from a verb to a noun.”
UsageCountable noun used primarily in the study of language structure.
- 03 C2 Proficiency
n.a way to show a complex number as a point on a graph.
n.the complex number a + bi corresponding to a specific point (a, b) in the complex plane.
Simple“The student plotted the affix on the Gauss plane during the geometry lesson.”
In context“In complex analysis, the affix represents the coordinates of a point within the Argand diagram.”
UsageHighly specialized term used in complex number theory.
“Researchers were now transporting that fluid to the lab, a large room with high ceilings and long, narrow rows of benches, each affixed to shelves cluttered with vials, pipettes and biohazard containers.”
From Latin affixus, the perfect passive participle of affigere ("to fasten to"), itself from ad- ("to") + figere ("to fix, fasten"). The spelling was later reshaped by surface analysis as a- + fix.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.