polysynthetic

[ pol-ee-sin-thet-ik ]

adjective
  1. (of a language) characterized by a prevalence of relatively long words containing a large number of affixes to express syntactic relationships and meanings. Many American Indian languages are polysynthetic.: Compare analytic (def. 3), synthetic (def. 3).

  2. of or relating to polysynthesism.

Origin of polysynthetic

1
1795–1805; <Late Greek polysýnthet(os) much compounded + -ic. See poly-, synthetic
  • Sometimes pol·y·syn·thet·i·cal .

Words Nearby polysynthetic

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How to use polysynthetic in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for polysynthetic

polysynthetic

/ (ˌpɒlɪsɪnˈθɛtɪk) /


adjective
  1. denoting languages, such as Inuktitut, in which single words may express the meaning of whole phrases or clauses by virtue of multiple affixes: Compare synthetic (def. 3), analytic (def. 3), agglutinative (def. 2)

Derived forms of polysynthetic

  • polysynthesis (ˌpɒlɪˈsɪnθɪsɪs), noun
  • polysynthesism, noun
  • polysynthetically, adverb

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