-cule
Also found in: Medical.
-cule
suffix forming nouns
indicating smallness: animalcule.
[from Latin -culus, diminutive suffix; compare -cle]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
-cle1
, a suffix of Latin diminutive nouns borrowed into English via French: used later in adaptations of words borrowed directly from Latin: article; conventicle; corpuscle; particle.
[< French, Old French < Latin -culus, -a, -um, variant of -ulus -ule]
-cle2
, a suffix of Latin nouns borrowed into English via French: used later in adaptations of words borrowed directly from Latin; in Latin, it formed nouns that denoted a place appropriate to the action of a verb (cubicle; receptacle) or a means by which the action is performed (vehicle).
[< French, Old French < Latin -culum, -cula]
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