Words Beginning with Pre

List of Pre Words

There are a lot of words beginning with pre. Pre is a prefix that has been around a long time, and it looks as if it will be here for good. Many people argue that pre is redundant, and, in many cases, I agree. But there are some legitimate uses for pre where it makes sense.

I recognize that language changes, and it must, but I refuse to use some of the pre words. Since pre means before it often doesn’t make sense. Which ones don’t I like?

Preboard

All airlines use this word when they announce that it’s time to get on the plane. They use “preboard” to let the people with higher frequent flyer status, or families traveling with younger children, to beat the rush. I don’t have an issue with the policy. The issue I have is that to “board” the plane means to get on the plane, so how can you “pre board”? Are you getting on the plane before you get on?

Of course, I realize what it means but that doesn’t make it right. The airlines should get some guts and announce it properly. “We’re boarding our first-class passengers now, and those who have gold or silver status in our rewards program.”

Prerecord

This is another one I have issues with. How can you record something before it’s recorded?

Preorder

To begin with, I prefer the hyphen in this word though accepted practice is to not use it. That aside, I understand what the word conveys (to order something prior to a release) but technically you can’t order something before you order it. And besides, no one said order meant the product was released. I just ordered a book today that won’t be out for months. I placed an order for it. I did not preorder it. That means to order before you order.

There are many pre words like this, but there are also legitimate ones. Ones like pre-existing. Existing means living—to be alive. Many things are pre-exisitng like dinosaurs are a pre-existing species.

There are plenty more we could discuss, but let’s just get on with the list.

The following list contains almost 300 words beginning with pre. The list shows them all as one word, but some dictionaries may use a hyphen for some of them. It is a debated issue, but the rule I follow is that if you have doubts, use the hyphen.

Using a hyphen will seldom muddy the waters (so to speak); however, omitting the hyphen may. A classic example is preorder. A lot of people write pre-order, and I have to admit, when I first see it, pre-order is easier to read than preorder. The consensus is, however, to only use a hyphen when a prefix ends with the same vowel as the word it’s attaching to. A few examples follow.

• Pre-eminent (with hyphen)
  Preorder (without)
  Anti-inflammatory (with)
  Antibiotic (without)
  Re-energize (with)

Or if leaving the hyphen out would create potential confusion with another word such as:

• Re-cover (as in to cover something again)
  Recover (as in to find something that was lost)

Words Beginning with “Pre”

The words beginning with pre list came from Merriam-Webster’s site, but I inserted a lot of hyphens. Their list only had one hyphen; it is how they recommend spelling each one. I disagree with a quite a few.

pre-admission
pre-adult
pre-agricultural
pre-anesthetic
pre-announce
pre-approve
pre-arrange
pre-arrangement
pre-assembled
pre-assign
pre-bake
prebattle
prebiblical
prebook
prebreakfast
precapitalist
prechill
pre–Christmas
preclearance
precode
precoital
precollege
precollegiate
precolonial
precombustion
precommitment
precompute
precomputer
preconcert
preconciliar
preconquest
preconstructed
preconvention
preconviction
precool
precopulatory
precrash
precrease
precrisis
precut
predawn
predefine
predelivery
predeparture
predesignate
predevaluation
predevelopment
predinner
predischarge
prediscovery
predive
predraft
predrill
predynastic
preelection
preelectric
preelectronic
preembargo
preemployment
preenrollment
preerect
preestablish
preethical
preexperiment
prefade
prefeudal
prefight
prefile
prefilled
prefinance
prefire
preflame
preformat
pre-formulate
pre-genital
pre-harvest
pre-hiring
prholiday
pre-inaugural
pre-incorporation
pre-induction
pre-industrial
pre-interview
pre-invasion
pre-kindergarten
pre-launch
pre-life
pre-literary
pre-lunch
pre-luncheon
pre-made
pre-manufacture
pre-marital
pre-marketing
pre-marriage
pre-meal
pre-measure
pre-medieval
pre-meet
pre-meiotic
pre-menopausal
pre-merger
pre-migration
pre-modern
premodification
premodify
premoisten
pre-notification
pre-notify
pre-number
pre-operational
preorder
pre-paste
preperformance
pre-plan
preportion
pre-prepared
pre-presidential
pre-press
pre-price
pre-primary
pre-production
pre-program
pre-psychedelic
pre-publication
pre-punch
pre-purchase
pre-qualification
prequalify
pre-race
pre-recession
pre-recorded
pre-rehearsal
pre-release
pre-require
pre-retirement
pre-return
pre-review
pre-revisionist
pre-revolution
pre-revolutionary
pre-rinse
pre-sale
pre-schedule
pre-screen
pre-season
pre-sentence
pre-sentencing
pre-slice
pre-song
prespecify
presplit
prestamp
presterilize
prestorage
pre-strike
prestructure
pre-summit
presurgery
pre-sweeten
pre-symptomatic
pretape
pretax
pretechnological
pretelevision
pretermination
pretheater
pretournament
pretrain
pretravel
pretreat
pre-treatment
pre-trial
pre-trimmed
pre-type
pre-unification
pre-university
pre-viable
prewar
prewarn
prewash
pre-weaning
pre-work
pre-wrap

As mentioned, I inserted all but one of these hyphens because that’s the way I like them. The dictionary only had one hyphen in this whole list—pre-Christmas. Pre-Christmas was hyphenated because the rule is that prefixes used with proper nouns are always hyphenated. Other examples would be:

trans-Canadian (pipeline)
mid-August (heat)
pre-Victorian (era)

Also please note that the prefix does not get capitalized simply by being attached to the proper noun.

If you liked this, try some of the other writing resources (I’ll be continually adding more) or check out some of the posts.

You should be able to download the “words beginning with pre” list by clicking the link.

List of Pre Words