Prefix · love · affinity
Means "love" or "strong affinity for": philosophy, philanthropy, philharmonic, philology.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
Phil- comes from the Greek philein, which means "to love". It expresses intellectual love, fondness or deep affinity for something: philosophy is the love of wisdom, philanthropy the love of humanity and philology the love of words.
The same root works in two positions. At the start of a word it is the prefix phil-. At the end, it becomes the suffix -phile and describes a person with a great fondness for something, like a lover of books or of another culture. So if you ever meet a word that ends in -phile, you already know the idea.
Combines with Greek roots to express love or deep affinity for something:
Pronunciation: /fɪl/.
phil-/fɪl/
Tap the button to hear how the prefix sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Philosophy" (phil- = love + sophos = wisdom): the intellectual pursuit of fundamental truths about existence, knowledge, ethics, and reason. "Philanthropy" (phil- = love + anthropos = human being): the desire to promote human welfare through large-scale donations or charitable action. A philosopher thinks; a philanthropist gives.
A trick to remember it
Think of philosophy, the love of wisdom: phil- = love. philosophy, bibliophile.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
What is the difference between a "philosopher" and a "philanthropist"?
The prefix phil- means "love" or "strong affinity for": philosophy, philanthropy, philharmonic, philology.
The prefix phil- is pronounced /fɪl/. For example, "philosophy".
"osophy" becomes "philosophy". It is a typical example of the phil- prefix.
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