Predictor

How to spell predictor

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce predictor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does predictor mean?

1. nounA thing or person that indicates or forecasts what is likely to happen.

Predictor in a sentence

• Household income is a strong predictor of overall spending.

• The survey treated past behaviour as the best predictor of future loyalty.

Where does predictor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word predictor is built from the Latin verb praedicere, meaning 'to say beforehand' or 'to foretell', which joins prae 'before' with dicere 'to say'. English already had the verb predict by the early 1600s, and predictor was formed by adding the agent suffix -or, which marks the person or thing that performs the action. The dicere root, meaning 'to say', is remarkably productive and also lies behind a crowd of familiar relatives such as dictate, verdict, contradict, and dictionary, all of which involve speaking or stating. The spelling stays close to its Latin parts, so the -or ending is the main point to watch: it follows the Latin agent pattern (as in actor and director) rather than the more common -er. Knowing that a predictor is literally a 'before-sayer' makes the unbroken pre + dict + or structure easy to hold in mind.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• dict (from Latin dicere: to say)
• -or (agent noun suffix: one that does)