characterized by or full of: ambitious, religious, suspicious
Compare -eous
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
-ious, suffix.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- -ious, a variant form of -ous,is attached to roots to form adjectives: hilar- (= cheerful) + -ious → hilarious (= very funny).
-ious,
- variant of -ous, added to stems of Latin origin, often with corresponding nouns ending in -ity: atrocious;
hilarious. Cf. -eous.
- Middle English
Latin -iōsus (see -i-, -ose1) and Latin -ius (masculine singular adjective, adjectival ending, as in varius)
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'-ious' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
-eous
- -ous
- Cyllenian
- Laurentian
- abstemious
- acinarious
- anxious seat
- aphid
- arsenious
- avaricious
- bifarious
- burglarious
- catamenia
- chalcedony
- compunctious
- contradictious
- deleterious
- dissentious
- eximious
- facetious
- ferocious
- flirtatious
- half-ingenious
- hilarious
- hyperfastidious
- hyperhilarious
- infectious
- laborious
- logion
- lubricious
- malaria
- mithridate
- monogyny
- nefarious
- nonamphibious
- nonbilious
- nondelirious
- nonfastidious
- nongregarious
- nonignominious
- noninvidious
- nonmalarious
- nonvarious
- nonvicarious
- noxious
- nugacious
- or
- ostentatious
- overfastidious
- overingenious