morpheme

mor·pheme

noun \ˈmȯr-ˌfēm\

Definition of MORPHEME

: a distinctive collocation of phonemes (as the free form pin or the bound form -s of pins) having no smaller meaningful parts

— mor·phe·mic \mȯr-ˈfē-mik\ adjective

— mor·phe·mi·cal·ly \-mi-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Examples of MORPHEME

1. The word “pins” contains two morphemes: “pin” and the plural suffix “-s.”

Origin of MORPHEME

French morphème, from Greek morphē form

First Known Use: 1926

Rhymes with MORPHEME

abeam, agleam, airstream, berseem, beseem, bireme, blaspheme, bloodstream, centime, coal seam, cold cream, crossbeam, daydream, downstream, dream team, drill team, egg cream, esteem, extreme, French seam, grapheme, Gulf Stream, hakim, headstream, high beam, hornbeam, I beam, ice cream, inseam, jet stream, kilim, lexeme, live steam, low beam, mainstream, midstream, millime, millstream, moonbeam, onstream, phoneme, pipe dream, redeem, regime, rhyme scheme, sealed-beam, sememe, sidestream, slipstream, sour cream, sunbeam, supreme, tag team, Tarim, third-stream, toneme, trireme, unseam, upstream, warp beam, wet dream

morpheme

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

In linguistics, the smallest grammatical unit of speech. It may be an entire word (cat) or an element of a word (re- and -ed in reappeared). In so-called isolating languages, like Vietnamese, each word contains a single morpheme; in languages such as English, words often contain multiple morphemes. The study of morphemes is included in morphology.