The building blocks of English

Affixes

-ity

Also ‑itous.

A quality or condition.

French ‑ité, from Latin ‑itas, ‑itatis.

Examples from a large set include dignity (Latin dignitas), humility (Latin humilitas), and opportunity (Latin opportunitas). Others are chastity, hostility, lucidity, prosperity, timidity, and vulgarity.

In some cases adjectives can be created from nouns in ‑ity by losing the final y and adding ‑ous, corresponding to French words in ‑iteux that come from Latin ones ending in ‑itosus: calamitous, fortuitous, precipitous, ubiquitous.

See also ‑able (for ‑ability, ‑ibility, and ‑ubility), ‑acious (for ‑acity), ‑ic (for ‑icity), ‑osity, and ‑ty¹.

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