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-ior

Also ‑or.

Forming adjectives of comparison.

From Latin comparatives.

Examples are anterior, exterior, inferior, junior, posterior, prior, and ulterior. Some do not have the intermediate i, such as major (Latin, comparative of magnus, great). Some can also be nouns indicating a person or thing having that quality. However, warrior derives instead from a variant of Old French guerreior, from guerre, war; others (behavior, savior) are US spellings of words in ‑our (see ‑or2).

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