-ance


  1. a suffix used to form nouns either from adjectives ending in -ant or from verbs: brilliance; appearance.

Origin of -ance

1
Middle English <Old French <Latin -antia-ancy, equivalent to -ant--ant + -ia-y3

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How to use -ance in a sentence

  • An' then, a' at ance, the minister's heart played dunt an' stood stock-still; an' a cauld wund blew amang the hairs o' his heid.

  • "I had ance a kin' o' notion o' Bell mysel," continued Sanders.

    Auld Licht Idylls | J. M. Barrie
  • God keep ill gear out o' my hands; for if my hands ance get it, my heart winna part wi't,—sae prayed the gude Earl of Eglinton.

    The Proverbs of Scotland | Alexander Hislop
  • Davie tell't me how you stood up and saluted him, and I was glad I'd kissed ye ance upon a time, though it was only to plague ye.

    The Yeoman Adventurer | George W. Gough
  • Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all men for having had the wifely experience she kens!

    Freckles | Gene Stratton-Porter

British Dictionary definitions for -ance

-ance

suffix forming nouns
  1. indicating an action, state or condition, or quality: hindrance; tenancy; resemblance Compare -ence

Origin of -ance

1
via Old French from Latin -antia; see -ancy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012