indicating form or structure
morphology
morpheme
morphophonemics
What does morpho- mean? Morpho- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “form, structure.” It is often occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in biology and linguistics. Morpho- comes from Greek morphḗ, meaning “form.”What are variants of morpho-?When combined with words or word elements that begin with a vowel, morpho- becomes morph-, as in morphactin. Additional related combining forms include -morphic, -morphism, and -morphous. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles on all four combining forms.
First recorded in 1850–55; from New Latin Morphō, genus name, from Greek Morphṓ “the Shapely, the Beautiful” (an epithet of Aphrodite in Sparta), akin to morphḗ “form, shape, figure, beauty”
< Greek, combining form of morphḗ
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
According to the Rainforest Alliance, the blue morpho is among the largest butterflies in the world, with wings spanning from five to eight inches.
From BBC ● May 8, 2026
In the Amazon, tapirs with droopy trunks and watery eyes step "mincingly" along riverbanks, and blue morpho butterflies the size of postcards careen "reckless and beautiful" through their camp.
From Salon ● May 24, 2022
Mimicking a light-filled 80-degree rainforest, this 1,200-square-foot vivarium provides close encounters with as many as 500 creatures, such as monarch, viceroy, blue morpho and emerald swallowtail butterflies, and atlas and luna moths.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2021
The tiny scales on a morpho butterfly’s wings, for example, are covered with minuscule ridges that have cross-ribs—a little like the profile of a fir tree.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 13, 2020
Shay was still too skinny, even after the morpho software had pulled her toward the average.
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
When she had showed Shay her pretty morphos, Tally had mentioned how she always started by doubling her left side—that she had always hated the right side of her face.
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
Or one of the morphos would flicker among those spectral bastions, aerial and bright as a fairy in Hades.
From The Sea and the Jungle by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
We did not see a movement, except when the morphos started from the uprooted tree.
From The Sea and the Jungle by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
As we climbed the tree, to cross upon it, we disturbed several morphos.
From The Sea and the Jungle by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
Afterwards I saw many of them; sometimes when walking the forest there would be morphos always in sight.
From The Sea and the Jungle by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
