noun
- the smallest meaningful units of language that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts
Usage: linguistics; plural of morpheme
Examples
- The word ‘unhappy’ contains three morphemes: ‘un-‘, ‘happy’, and the implied present tense.
- Students learned to identify morphemes in complex words during their linguistics class.
- Free morphemes like ‘cat’ can stand alone, while bound morphemes like ‘-ed’ cannot.
- The teacher explained how morphemes combine to create new words with different meanings.
- Analyzing morphemes helps linguists understand how languages form and change over time.
- Children naturally learn to recognize morphemes as they develop language skills.