in pronunciations below, | ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷.|med.ə or |metə prefix
or met-
Etymology: New Latin & Medieval Latin, from Late Latin or Greek; Late Latin, from Greek, from meta between, with, after; akin to Old English mid, mith with, Old Saxon mid, midi, Old High German mit, miti with, Old Norse meth with, between, Gothic mith with, and perhaps to Old English midd mid — more at mid
1.
a. : occurring later : in succession to : after
meta chronism
meta biosis
meta genesis
meta infective
b. : situated behind : posterior
meta pore
meta nephron
c. : later or more highly organized or specialized form of
Meta zoa
meta phyte
d. : with : occurring with
meta cinnabar
2.
a.
[Middle French & Latin; Middle French, from Latin, from Greek, from meta ]
: change in : transformation of
meta morphosis
meta plasia
b. : produced by metamorphism
meta diorite
meta sediment
3.
a.
[Middle English, from Medieval Latin, from Greek meta after, as used in ta meta ta physika the (works) after the physics — more at metaphysics ]
: beyond : transcending
meta physics
meta psychosis
meta geometry
meta biological
met empirics
b. : of a higher logical type — in nouns formed from names of disciplines and designating new but related disciplines such as can deal critically with the nature, structure, or behavior of the original ones
meta language
meta theory
meta system
4.
[International Scientific Vocabulary, from Greek, with, after, from meta ]
a. : one that is isomeric with, polymeric with, or otherwise closely related to
met aldehyde
— in names of chemical compounds; compare para- I 2a
b.
(1) : relation of two positions in the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom
(2) meta- , usually italic : derivative that has two substituting groups occupying such positions — abbr. m-
meta -xylene or m -xylene is 1,3-dimethyl-benzene
— compare orth- 3b, para- I 2b
c. : regarded as derived from (the ortho acid) by loss of water (as of one molecule of water from each molecule of acid) — in names of inorganic acids
meta phosphoric acid
— compare orth- 3a, pyr- 2a
d. : derived from by removal or loss of some or all of the contained water — in names of minerals
meta autunite
meta halloysite