Anti and Ante
Anti
When the meaning is ‘against’ or ‘preventing’, you need to use anti-, which comes from the
Greek language.
It is used to form words such as antifreeze (a substance that prevents water from freezing).
Words which begin with anti- are sometimes hyphenated, typically when the word following
anti- begins with a vowel (e.g. anti-aircraft, anti-inflammatory) and always when the base
word begins with a capital letter (e.g., anti-American).
There are lots more words beginning with anti- than those that begin with ante-.
Ante
The meaning of ante is ‘before’ or ‘in front of’ which is from the Latin language.
Ante- is used to form words like antenatal (= before birth) and antechamber (a small room
leading to a bigger one).
There aren't very many ‘ante-’ words in general use and none of them are hyphenated.
