morpheme
[ mawr-feem ]
/ ˈmɔr fim /
noun Linguistics.
any of the minimal grammatical units of a language, each constituting a word or meaningful part of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller independent grammatical parts, as the, write, or the -ed of waited.Compare allomorph(def 2), morph(def 1).
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RELATED WORDS
sound, term, concept, name, phrase, expression, designation, locution, idiom, usage, utterance, vocable, lexeme, fundamentals, morphemes, elements, syllabary, symbols, ideograph, rune
Nearby words
- morph-,
- morph.,
- morphactin,
- morphallaxis,
- morphea,
- morpheme structure condition,
- morphemics,
- morpheus,
- morphia,
- morphic
Origin of morpheme
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
morpheme
/ (ˈmɔːfiːm) /
noun
linguistics a speech element having a meaning or grammatical function that cannot be subdivided into further such elements
Word Origin for morpheme
C20: from French, from Greek morphē form, coined on the model of phoneme; see -eme
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
morpheme
"part of a word which contains the affixes," 1896, from German morpheme, coined 1895 by Polish-born linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (1845–1929), from Greek morphe "form, shape" (see Morpheus), on analogy of phonème.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper