# re-
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English re-, from Old French re-, from Latin re-, red- (“back; anew; again; against”), of uncertain origin but conjectured by Watkins to be from Proto-Indo-European *wret-, a metathetic alteration of *wert- (“to turn”). Displaced native English ed-, eft-, a-, with-/wither-, gain-/again-.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɹiː/
** Audio (US):(file)
* IPA: /ɹɪ/
** Audio (US):(file)
* IPA: /ɹə/
** Audio (US):(file)

### Prefix

re-
* again, anew
    ‎re- + ‎new → ‎renew (“to make something new again”)
    ‎re- + ‎commit → ‎recommit (“to commit an act again”)
    ‎re- + ‎heat → ‎reheat (“to heat something that has cooled off”)
* a completive or intensification of the base; up, a-, out
    reletter, relead, rebronze (examples from:)
* back, backward
    reject, reply, resist

#### Usage notes

* The pronunciation varies depending on the word, with /ɹiː/, /ɹɪ/ (some pronunciations), /ɹɛ/ found in words like replay, resist and revolution, respectively.
* The hyphen is not normally included in words formed using this prefix, except when the absence of a hyphen would make the meaning unclear. Hyphens are used in the following cases:
** Sometimes in new coinages and nonce words.
    stir and re-stir the mixture
** When the word that the prefix is combined with begins with a capital letter.
    re-Christianise
** When the word that the prefix is combined with begins with another re-.
    re-record
** In British usage, when the word that the prefix is combined with begins with e.
    re-entry (North American: reentry)
** When the word formed is identical in form to another word in which re- does not have any of the senses listed above.
    The chairs have been re-covered (covered again)
    The chairs have been recovered (obtained back)
* A dieresis may be used instead of a hyphen, as in reëntry. This usage is now rare, but extant; see diaeresis (diacritic) for examples and discussion.
* re- is highly productive, to the point of being almost grammaticalized — almost any verb can have re- applied, especially in colloquial speech. Notable exceptions to this include all forms of be and the modal verbs can, should, etc. When used productively, it is always pronounced /ɹiː/.

#### Synonyms

* (again): ana-, palin-
* (back): with-

#### Translations
### See also

* again
* re
* repeat

### References

* “re-”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “re- (prefix),” December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1031113569.

### Anagrams

* 'er, -'er, -er, E-R, E. R., E.R., ER, er, er.

## Catalan
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re- (again)
    ‎re- + ‎fer (“to do”) → ‎refer (“to redo”)
* intensifier for adjectives and adverbs
    Synonym: -íssim
    ‎re- + ‎vell (“old”) → ‎revell (“very old”)
* great-, grand- (used to denote the removal of one generation)
    Synonym: bes-
    ‎re- + ‎nebot (“nephew”) → ‎renebot (“grandnephew”)

#### Derived terms
### Further reading

* “re-” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “re-”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “re-” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “re-” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Chuukese
### Prefix

re-
* (inflected as a noun) with
* (subject marker for tense modifying adverbs) they

## Dutch
### Etymology

From Latin re-. Doublet of her-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

#### Derived terms
## Esperanto
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* indicates repetition, again
* indicates a return to previous state, back
* indicates an action performed reciprocally, back (e.g., to hit back, to talk back)

#### Derived terms
## Franco-Provençal
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re- (ORB, broad)
* Attaches to verbs, often adding a sense of repetition or reversion.

#### Derived terms
## French
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʁə/
* Audio:(file)

### Prefix

re-
* re-
    ‎re- + ‎marcher (“to function”) → ‎remarcher (“to function again”)
* meaningless generic derivation prefix, especially as r-. From semantic bleaching of sense 1 followed by the unprefixed terms becoming obsolete or diverging in meaning.

#### Usage notes

This is only used when the stem starts with a consonant; otherwise, ré- or r- are used.

#### See also

* r-

## German
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʁe/
* Audio:(file)

### Prefix

re-
* re-

#### Derived terms
## Hungarian
### Etymology

From Latin re- (“again; back”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈrɛ]

### Prefix

re-
* indicates repetition, again
* indicates a return to previous state, back

#### Derived terms
## Interlingua
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* back, backwards
* again; prefix added to various words to indicate an action being done again, or like the other usages indicated above under English.

#### Derived terms
## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin re-. The prefix re- is borrowed from Latin, while the variant ri- is inherited from Latin.

### Prefix

re-
* re-
    Synonym: ri-

#### Usage notes

* The prefix re- normally replaces ri- before words beginning with i, for euphonic reasons.

#### Derived terms
### References

* ↑ Migliorini, Bruno with Aldo Duro (1950) Prontuario etimologico della lingua italiana (in Italian), Paravia

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *wre- (“again”), of uncertain origin (OED); see the Proto-Italic entry for more.

### Prefix

re-
* back, backwards
* un-, de-
    ‎re- + ‎glūtinō (“glue”) → ‎reglūtinō (“unglue, separate”)
    ‎re- + ‎neō (“spin, weave, entwine”) → ‎reneō (“unspin, unravel”)
    ‎re- + ‎gelō (“freeze, congeal”) → ‎regelō (“thaw, unfreeze”)
* again; prefix added to various words to indicate an action being done again, or like the other usages indicated above under English.

#### Usage notes

The alternative form red- occurs before vowels or h in old formations; it is used with the linking vowel -i- in the word redivīvus. The -d- can be compared to that in sēditiō (compare sē- and sed) and in prōd-, antid-, postid- (alternative forms of prō-, ante-, post-). It may originate from the particle *de or from the use of -d as an archaic ablative singular ending. The use of the form re- before vowels, as in reaedifico, reinvito, is not seen until Late Latin. (See Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary, 1897, s.v. "re" and "D").
Before consonants, its usual form is rĕ- with short /e/, but the following consonant is sometimes doubled. In some cases, such as reccidī, the double consonant comes from syncope of an originally reduplicated syllable of the base word: compare the unprefixed form cecidī. In other cases, such as redducō, relligiō, relliquiae, the double consonant may have arisen from preconsonantal use of red-, with assimilation of -d- to the following consonant.

#### Descendants

* Catalan: re-
* → English: re-
* French: re-, ré-, r-
* Galician: re-
* Interlingua: re-
* Italian: re-, ri-
* Norman: re-, èr-
* Occitan: re-
* Picard: ar-
* Portuguese: re-
* Romanian: ră-, re-
* Spanish: re-

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “re-, red-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 516
* ↑ R. B. Burnaby (1905) Elegiac Selections from Ovid, page 98
* 1 2 Lindsay, Wallace Martin (1894) The Latin Language, page 591

## Middle French
### Prefix

re-
* re- (again; once more)

## Neapolitan
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

#### Derived terms
## Norman
### Alternative forms

* èr-

### Etymology

From Old French re-, from Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

#### Derived terms
## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

### References

* “re-” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

### References

* “re-” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Occitan
### Etymology

From Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re-

#### Derived terms
## Old French
### Prefix

re-
* re- (again; once more)

## Polish
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin re-.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /rɛ/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛ
* Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]
* Homophones: re, Re

### Prefix

re-
* re- (again, anew)
* re- (back, backward)

#### Derived terms
### Further reading

* re- in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Portuguese
### Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese re-, from Latin re-.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ʁe/ [he], /ˌʁe/ [ˌhe]
* (Brazil) IPA: /ʁe/ [he], /ˌʁe/ [ˌhe]
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /ʁe/ [χe], /ˌʁe/ [ˌχe]
* (Portugal) IPA: /ʁɨ/

### Prefix

re-
* re- (forms verbs indicating that the action is being done again)
    ‎re- + ‎fazer (“to do”) → ‎refazer (“to redo”)

#### Derived terms
## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin re-. The form ră- only appears in a few inherited words.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /re/

### Prefix

re-
* re-

## Slovak
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin re-.

### Prefix

re-
* re- (again, anew)
* re- (back, backward)

#### Derived terms
## Spanish
### Etymology 1

From Latin re-.

#### Prefix

re-
* again
    ‎re- + ‎construir → ‎reconstruir
* backwards
    ‎re- + ‎fluir → ‎refluir
* opposition
    ‎re- + ‎pugnar → ‎repugnar

### Etymology 2

Of Proto-Celtic origin, cognate with Irish ró- (“very”). (Can this etymology be sourced?)

#### Prefix

re-
* forms superlatives from adjectives
    Synonyms: muy, -ísimo
    ‎re- + ‎bueno (“good”) → ‎rebueno (“great”)
    ‎re- + ‎chulo (“cute”) → ‎rechulo (“very cute”)

##### Derived terms

* rete-, requete-, recontra-
* re

##### Derived terms

* Spanish terms prefixed with re- reabastecer reabrir reabsorber reacción reacomodar reacondicionar reactivación reactivar reactivo reactualizar readaptar readecuar readiestrar readmisión readmitir readquirir reafirmación reafirmar reagrupar rehogar reajustar realimentar realinear realistar realojar realquilar realzar reanudar reaparecer reapertura reaplicar reaprender reaprovechar reaprovisionar rearticular reasegurar reasentar reasfaltar reasignar reasumir reatar reautorizar reavituallamiento reavivar rebajar rebalancear rebatir rebautizar rebien rebobinar rebotar rebozar rebramar rebrillar rebrincar rebrote rebueno rebullicio rebujar rebuscar recaer recalcar recalcular recalendarizar recalentar recalibrar recalificar recámara recapitalizar recapturar recargar recategorizar recauchutar recentralización recentralizar recercar recertificar rechulo reclasificar recocer recocinar recodificar recodar recolector recolocar recolonizar recombinar recomenzar recomisionar recompilar recomprar reconcentrar reconducir reconectar reconexión reconfigurar reconfirmar reconfortar reconquistar reconsagrar reconsiderar reconstituir recontar recontextualizar recontratar reconvenir reconvertir recopilar recorrer recortar recoser recostar recristalizar recrudecer recuadro recubrir redecir redecorar rededicar redefinir redemocratizar redenominar redescribir redescubrimiento redescubrir redesignar redibujar redifundir redifusión redimensionar rediós redirección redirigir rediscutir rediseñar redistribuir reedición reeditar reeducar reelaborar reelegir reembarcar reembolsar remendar reemisión reemitir reemplazar reemprender rempujar reenamorar reencaminar reencantar reencarnar reencauzar reencontrar reencuadernar reenergizar reenfocar reenganchar reengendrar reenmarcar reensamblar reenterrar reentrar reentrenar reenvasar reenviar reequilibrar reequipar resguardar resbalar reescalar reescribir resfriar respaldar reestabilizar restablecer reestatizar reestilizar restregar reestrenar reestructurar reeuskaldunización reevaluación reevaluar reexaminar reexpandir reexpedir reexportar refabricar refaccionar refacción refacturar refamoso refinanciar refirmar reflotar reforestación reforestar reforjar

### Further reading

* “re-”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Prefix

re-
* re-; doing something again
    Synonyms: åter-, om-

#### Derived terms
### Anagrams

* -er, er, er-