Qualifier

How to spell qualifier

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce qualifier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does qualifier mean?

1. nounA preliminary match or round that decides who advances to the main competition.
2. nounA person or team that has earned a place in the next stage of a competition.
3. nounA word or phrase that limits or modifies the meaning of another word.

Qualifier in a sentence

• The team must win the qualifier to reach the finals.

• As the fastest qualifier, he started the race from pole position.

• The lawyer added a careful qualifier to soften the statement.

• Rain delayed the opening qualifier of the tournament.

• Only the top qualifier from each group progressed to the knockout stage.

• In the phrase 'almost ready', the word 'almost' acts as a qualifier.

Where does qualifier come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends ultimately from the Latin qualis, meaning 'of what kind', combined with facere, 'to make', which together produced the Medieval Latin verb qualificare, 'to describe or attribute a quality to something'. English borrowed this in the sixteenth century as the verb 'qualify', first in the sense of giving something a particular character or making it fit for a purpose. The noun 'qualifier' was then formed in English by adding the agent suffix -er, naming the person, thing, or word that does the qualifying. From there the meaning branched widely: a grammatical qualifier limits or modifies the sense of another word, while a sporting qualifier is the contest or competitor that earns a place in a later stage. The same qualis root sits quietly inside the everyday words 'quality' and 'qualification', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the 'quali-' opening rather than a phonetic 'kwol-'.

How the word is built

• quali- (from Latin qualis: of what kind)
• -fi- (from facere: to make)
• -er (agent/instrument suffix)