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Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-ula Also -ular.

Forming diminutive nouns.

[Latin feminine ending -ula.]

Examples include auricula (diminutive of Latin auris, ear), an Alpine primula whose leaves supposedly resemble bears' ears; cannula (diminutive of Latin canna, reed), a thin tube inserted into a vein or body cavity during surgery; spatula (diminutive of Latin spatha, a broadsword), an implement with a broad, flat, blunt blade. However, peninsula derives from Latin insula, island; others come from a variety of sources.

Words ending in -ular are adjectives, derived from the Latin adjectival ending -ularis. They are sometimes related to diminutive nouns in -ule or -ula (fistular, globular, macular, molecular, pustular). Others are linked to a variety of English nouns in various endings with no diminutive sense (angular, irregular, muscular, oracular, perpendicular).

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