The building blocks of English

Affixes

-fy

Also ‑ify.

Make or produce; transform into; become.

Latin ‑ficare and ‑facere, from facere, to make or do.

Many verbs in this ending exist, formed either from nouns or adjectives. Some examples are amplify, certify, dignify, exemplify, horrify, identify, liquefy, magnify, pacify, ratify, satisfy, stupefy, testify, and verify.

The ending is in active use, forming verbs both from nouns and adjectives. Because many existing examples contain the linking vowel ‑i‑, its form is usually taken to be ‑ify rather than ‑fy.

Verbs are sometimes created with humorous intent, as in trendify, to make trendy or fashionable, and yuppify, to make an area attractive to yuppies; others of similar kind are cutify, uglify, and youthify.

Many verbs in ‑fy have associated adjectives in ‑fic and nouns in ‑fication. See also ‑esce.