Morpheme

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɔː(ɹ)fiːm/

Origin

From French morphème.

Full definition of morpheme

Noun

1. (linguistic morphology) 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).

Synonyms

Hyponyms

• prefix
• suffix
• affix

Holonyms

• word

Derived terms

• morphemic

Related terms

• free morpheme
• bound morpheme
• allomorph
• lexeme
• lemma
• sememe
• word form