Appendix

How to spell appendix

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce appendix

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does appendix mean?

1. nounA section of supplementary material added at the end of a book, report, or document.
2. nounA small pouch attached to the large intestine, which can become inflamed.

Appendix in a sentence

• The full survey data appears in the appendix at the back of the report.

• The surgeon removed his inflamed appendix in an emergency operation.

• She moved the lengthy tables into an appendix to keep the chapter readable.

• A sharp pain on the lower right side can signal a problem with the appendix.

Where does appendix come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin appendix, meaning 'something that hangs on' or an addition. That noun was formed from the verb appendere, built from ad- meaning 'to' or 'onto' and pendere meaning 'to hang', so the literal idea is of a part that hangs from or is attached to a larger whole. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, first for a supplement attached to the end of a book or document, and later the same logic gave it to anatomy for the small worm-shaped pouch hanging from the large intestine. The very same pendere root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'pendant', 'pendulum', and 'suspend', all of which involve hanging. Knowing that ad- assimilated to ap- before the p explains the doubled p in the spelling, and remembering the Latin -ix ending helps you resist writing it as -ics.

How the word is built

• ap- (variant of ad-: to, onto)
• pend (from pendere: to hang)
• -ix (Latin noun suffix)