-ory

Added to nouns and verbs (often Latinate) to form nouns meaning “that which pertains to or serves for”.

Suffix morpheme

  1. Added to nouns and verbs (often Latinate) to form nouns meaning “that which pertains to or serves for”.
    • ambulate + -ory → ambulatory
    • incense + -ory → incensory
    • interrogate + -ory → interrogatory

    Synonyms: -age -al -arium -drome -ery -ium -orium

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -tōrius Latin -tōriumder. English -ory From the Latin noun suffix -tōrium. By surface analysis, -or + -y.

Forms

-ories

Suffix morpheme, not comparable

  1. Added to nouns and verbs (often Latinate) to form adjectives meaning “of”, “pertaining to”, or “serving for”.
    • excrete + -ory → excretory
    • sense + -ory → sensory
    • statute + -ory → statutory

    Synonyms: -al -ar -ary -ese -ic -id -ish -like -oid -ous -y

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -tōriusder. Middle English -orie English -ory From Middle English -orie, from the Latin adjective suffix -tōrius. By surface analysis, -or + -y.