quasi-
/ˈkwɑˌzaɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.49 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
prefix
Apparently, seemingly, or resembling.
Example Sentences
- "The quasi-death of insanity with its small periodic remissions, its deviations into good sense, even into brilliant insight, was almost more cruel really than outright death."
- "The British constitution famously rests on convention. This requires a compact between politicians working as a cabinet and a quasi-independent civil service."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Italic *kʷis Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷos Proto-Italic *kʷoi Latin quam Proto-Indo-European *sóder. Proto-Italic *sei Latin sī univ. Latin quasī̆bor. English quasi- Borrowed from Latin quasi (“almost; as it were”), from quam (interrogative adverb) + sī (conditional particle).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkwɑˌzaɪ/
- British English: /ˈkweɪzaɪ/
Derived Forms
quasiaesthetic
quasiamicable
quasiatom
quasicontraction
quasidihedral
quasidiploid
quasidirect
quasifunction
quasinorm
quasiplatonic
quasiprojective
quasiquotation
Phrases
quasi-arithmetical
quasi-art
quasi-automatic
quasi-automatically
quasi-belief
quasi-bialgebra
quasi-classic
quasi-colloquial