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morpheme

[ mawr-feem ]
/ ˈmɔr fim /
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See synonyms for: morpheme / morphemes on Thesaurus.com
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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Origin of morpheme

1895–1900; <French morphème;see morph-, -eme

OTHER WORDS FROM morpheme

mor·phe·mic, adjectivemor·phe·mi·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to morpheme

concept, expression, name, phrase, sound, term, designation, idiom, lexeme, locution, usage, utterance, vocable

British Dictionary definitions for morpheme

morpheme
/ (ˈmɔːfiːm) /
noun
linguistics a speech element having a meaning or grammatical function that cannot be subdivided into further such elements

Derived forms of morpheme

morphemic, adjectivemorphemically, adverb

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
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