-facient

The combining form -facient is used like a suffix meaning “causing” or “inducing.” It is very occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in medicine.

The form -facient comes from Latin facere, meaning “to make” or “to do.” Facere is also the source of the stems fac-, fact-, fect-, and fic-, as in facility and faculty, fact and factor, affection and infect, and beneficial and sacrifice. Find out more by visiting all eight entries!

What are variants of -facient?

Though -facient has no variants, it is related to the combining forms -fex, -fic, -fication, -fy, and -ify. To learn more, check out our Words That Use articles for all five forms.

One example of a scientific term that uses the form -facient is immunifacient, “producing immunity.”

The immuni- portion of the word is a shortened form of immunity. As we have seen, -facient means “causing” or “inducing.” Immunifacient literally translates to “causing immunity.”

What are some words that use the combining form -facient?

• abortifacient
• absorbefacient
• motofacient
• tumefacient (using the equivalent form of -facient in Latin)

What are some other forms that -facient may be commonly confused with?

• -aceous
• -acious
• -escent
• -fication

Given the meaning of -facient, what does absorbefacient mean?