Prefix · all / everywhere
Signals all or everywhere: omnipotent, omniscient, omnivore, omnipresent.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
Omni- comes from Latin "omnis" (all, every) and signals totality or universality: omnipotent = having all power (God in Christian theology); omniscient = knowing everything; omnivore = eating all kinds of food (both meat and plants); omnipresent = present everywhere at the same time. It is the prefix of absolute totality.
In philosophy and theology, omni- appears in three major divine attributes: omnipotence (unlimited power), omniscience (total knowledge), and omnipresence (universal presence). In modern technology: omnichannel = a strategy integrating all sales or communication channels; omnidirectional = emitting or receiving in all directions (antennas, microphones).
Attaches to adjectives and nouns. Identical in Spanish and English:
Pronunciation: /ˈɒmni/. Identical in Spanish and English. "Omnibus" (= bus) literally means "for all."
omni-/ˈɒmni/
Tap the button to hear how the prefix sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Omnivore" refers to dietary variety, not quantity. An omnivore can eat both plants and animals. The opposite categories are "herbivore" (plants only) and "carnivore" (meat only). The suffix "-vore" comes from Latin "vorare" (to devour).
"Omniscient" implies total, unlimited knowledge. A person can be very intelligent or well-informed, but not omniscient. The term is reserved for divine beings in theology or for the "omniscient narrator" in literature, who knows all characters' thoughts and all events in the story.
A trick to remember it
Omni- = "all" or "everywhere": omnipotent = all-powerful, omniscient = all-knowing, omnivore = eats everything, omnipresent = present everywhere. Identical in Spanish and English. Fun fact: "omnibus" = "for all" in Latin — that is where the word "bus" comes from.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
"The novel uses an ___ narrator who knows every character's thoughts, fears, and hidden motivations."
Exercise 3 · Pick the right one
Where does the word "bus" come from and what does it literally mean?
The prefix omni- signals all or everywhere: omnipotent, omniscient, omnivore, omnipresent. In Spanish it usually maps to omni-.
The prefix omni- is pronounced /ˈɒmni/. For example, "omnipotent".
"potent" becomes "omnipotent". It is a typical example of the omni- prefix.
un-, re-, pre-, dis-, over-, in-... every beginning you need to unlock thousands of English words at once.