-philous

The combining form -philous is used like a suffix meaning “liking” or “having an affinity for.” It is occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in biology.

The form -philous comes from Greek -philos, which means “loving” or “dear.”

While -philous doesn’t have any variants, it is related to six other combining forms: -phile, -philia, -philiac, -philic, -philism, and -phily. Want to know more? Check out our Words that Use articles for each form.

An example of a scientific term that features the form -philous is dendrophilous, “living in or on trees; arboreal.”

The dendro- part of the word means “tree,” from Greek déndron, while -philous means “liking.” Dendrophilous literally translates to “tree-liking.”

What are some words that use the combining form –philous?

• coprophilous
• geophilous (using the equivalent form of -philous in Latin)
• hygrophilous
• necrophilous
• tropophilous
• xerophilous

What are some other forms that -philous may be commonly confused with?

• -phile
• -philiac
• -philic
• -phyll

The combining form xero- means “dry.” With this in mind, what does the biological term xerophilous mean in everyday language?