-ence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English -ence,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French -ence,^[4][5][2][6] from Latin -entia,^{[4][5][7][6][8]} which also came directly in some words,^[5][7] and made up of -ēns, the present participle ending, the source of -ent, and -ia, the source of -y.^[4][5][2][7] In part it is also an alteration of -ance.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin nouns in -entia were abstract, usually for a quality and rarely for an action, as in sapientia and audientia.^[4] Old French levelled these and those in -antia to -ance in words of popular use, which meant an action or process.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Other Latin nouns that had not survived in spoken French were later adopted with -ence or -ance according to the Latin vowel, as in absence, diligence, elegance and prudence.^[4][5][6] These were nouns of quality or state, and all French words in -ence are of this class.^[4][5] Middle English took both classes, mostly with French spellings.^[5][6] From about 1500 some words were respelled with -ence after Latin, and nouns adopted since then follow the Latin form.^[5][6][9] So modern spelling varies, as in assistance and existence, or resistance and subsistence.^[6][9]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – obedience.^[4]
• c. 1325 – absence.^[4]
• after 1500 – some nouns respelled from -ance.^[5][9]
• 1535 – dependence.^[4]
• 1676 – emergence.^[4]
• 1713 – convergence.^[4]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forming nouns for an action or process, or an instance of it: abstinence, reference, convergence.^[2][5][9]
2. Forming nouns for a quality or state: dependence, prudence.^[2][5][8]
3. Forming nouns for someone or something having a quality or state: an eminence.^[2]

Word family

• confidence
• difference
• evidence
• experience
• silence

Related words

• -ance
• -ency
• -ent
• -y

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press