-en 1suff.1. a. To cause to be: cheapen.b. To become: redden.2. a. To cause to have: hearten.b. To come to have: lengthen.[Middle English -enen, -nen, from Old English -nian.]-en 2suff. Made of; resembling: earthen.[Middle English, from Old English.]-en 3suff. Used to form the past participle of many irregular verbs: broken, taken.[Middle English, from Old English.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.-en suffix forming verbs cause to be; become; cause to have: blacken; heighten. [Old English -n-, as in fæst-n-ian to fasten, of common Germanic origin; compare Icelandic fastna]-en suffix forming adjectives of; made of; resembling: ashen; earthen; wooden. [Old English -en; related to Gothic -eins, Latin -?nus -ine1]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014en (?n) n. 1. the letter N, n. 2. a space that is half the width of an em. en-1 , a prefix forming verbs that have the general sense ?to cause (a person or thing) to be in? the place, condition, or state named by the stem; more specifically, ?to confine in or place on? (entomb); ?to cause to be in? (enrich; enslave; entrust); ?to restrict,? typically with the additional sense ?on all sides, completely? (encircle; enclose; entwine). This prefix is also attached to verbs in order to make them transitive, or to give them a transitive marker if they are already transitive (enkindle; enliven; enshield). Also, before labial consonants, em-. Compare be-, in-2. [Middle English