English

Suffix

-ical

1. Used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning "of or pertaining to"; adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to make an adjective form. Often added to words of Latin origin, but used with other words also.

   mythical

   theistical

   whimsical

Usage notes

Often redundant to the use of -ic alone; for example, mythic and mythical are identical in meaning. Likewise for -etic, as in phonetic and phonetical. For words that naturally end in -ic such as magic and statistic, the addition is only of -al.

Derived terms

Related terms

• -ic
• -etic
• -al