polysynthetic

American  

[pol-ee-sin-thet-ik] / ˌpɒl i sɪnˈθɛt ɪk /

Sometimes polysynthetical

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.

2. of or relating to polysynthesism.

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polysynthetic British  

/ ˌpɒlɪsɪnˈθɛtɪk, ˌpɒlɪˈsɪnθɪsɪs /

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 analytic agglutinative

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Other Word Forms

• polysynthesis noun
• polysynthesism noun
• polysynthetically adverb

Etymology

Origin of polysynthetic

1795–1805; < Late Greek polysýnthet ( os ) much compounded + -ic. See poly-, synthetic

Example Sentences

Pitjantjatjara also has free word order, but unlike Murrinhpatha, the language is not polysynthetic.

From Scientific American • Oct. 18, 2023

Did Murrinhpatha's polysynthetic verb structure affect the pattern of language processing?

From Scientific American • Oct. 18, 2023

Kanyen’keha is a polysynthetic language, where a single word can function as an entire sentence.

From New York Times • Apr. 22, 2023

Unrelated to any other language, its grammar is complex and its structure polysynthetic; a verb conveys not just action but a wealth of other information.

From New York Times • Jun. 11, 2017

A polysynthetic language, as its name implies, is more than ordinarily synthetic.

From Language An Introduction to the Study of Speech by Sapir, Edward