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meta-

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meta-¹

  • /mɪˈta/ UK
  • /məˈtæ/ US
  • /mɪˈtæ/ Australia
  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ UK
  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ Canada, US
  • [ˈmɛɾ.ə] Canada, US
  • /ˈmet.ə/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈmeɾ.ə] Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *me

Proto-Indo-European *meth₂?

Ancient Greek μετᾰ́ (metắ)

Ancient Greek μετᾰ- (metă-)lbor.

English meta-

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μετα- (meta-), from μετά (metá), from Mycenaean Greek 𐀕𐀲 (me-ta), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂ (“in the middle”).

prefix met-

  1. morpheme Behind.
  2. morpheme Later or subsequent.
  3. morpheme, obsolete Situated between two segments.
  4. morpheme Having fewer molecules of water than the ortho- equivalent.
  5. morpheme in isomeric benzene derivatives, having the two substituents in alternate (1,3) positions; contrasted with ortho- and para-.
  6. morpheme Relating to metabolism.

meta-²

  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ UK
  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ Canada, US
  • [ˈmɛɾ.ə] Canada, US
  • /ˈmet.ə/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈmeɾ.ə] Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

Back-formation from metaphysics.

prefix met-

  1. morpheme Transcending, encompassing.
  2. morpheme Pertaining to a level above or beyond; reflexive or recursive; about itself or about other things of the same type. For example, metadata is data that describes data, metalanguage is language that describes language, etc.
  3. morpheme Having analogies with metaphysics.

meta-³

  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ UK
  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ Canada, US
  • [ˈmɛɾ.ə] Canada, US
  • /ˈmet.ə/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈmeɾ.ə] Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

Back-formation from metamorphism.

prefix met-

  1. morpheme Modified by metamorphosis; analogies and derivatives of metamorphism.

meta-⁴

  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ UK
  • /ˈmɛt.ə/ Canada, US
  • [ˈmɛɾ.ə] Canada, US
  • /ˈmet.ə/ Australia, New Zealand
  • [ˈmeɾ.ə] Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

Back-formation from metastasis.

prefix met-

  1. morpheme Consequent on.

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