morpheme

mor·pheme

noun

The definition of a morpheme is the smallest unit in a language that still has meaning.

An example of a morpheme is -est in the word greatest.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"morpheme." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme>.

APA Style

morpheme. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme

morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit or form in a language: it may be an affix (Ex.: un- in undo or -er in doer) or a base (Ex.: do in undo or the single morpheme in house)

Origin of morpheme

French morphème from Classical Greek morph?, form + French -ème, as in phonème, phoneme

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"morpheme." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme>.

APA Style

morpheme. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme

morpheme

noun

A meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. The word man and the suffix -ed (as in walked ) are morphemes.

Origin of morpheme

French morphème blend of Greek morphē form French phonème phoneme ; see phoneme .

Related Forms:

mor·phem′ic
adjective

mor·phem′i·cal·ly
adverb

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"morpheme." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme>.

APA Style

morpheme. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme

Noun

(plural morphemes)

(linguistics) The smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning, such as "un-", "break", and "-able" in the word "unbreakable".
The word pigs consists of two morphemes: pig (a particular animal) and s (indication of the plural).
The word werewolves' consists of four morphemes: "were" (~ man), "wolf" (a particular animal), "es" (plural), and " ' " (indicating possessive).

Related terms

free morpheme
bound morpheme
allomorph
lexeme
lemma
sememe
word form

Origin

From French morphème.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"morpheme." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme>.

APA Style

morpheme. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/morpheme

morpheme

morpheme

morpheme

Words near morpheme in the dictionary

Join YourDictionary today