Question: what is the difference between a word and a morpheme

title: Morpheme
text: A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language . In other words , it is the smallest meaningful unit of a language . The linguistics field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology . A morpheme is not identical to a word , and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone , whereas a word , by definition , is freestanding . When a morpheme stands by itself , it is considered as a root because it has a meaning of its own ( e.g. the morpheme cat ) and when it depends on another morpheme to express an idea , it is an affix because it has a grammatical function ( e.g. the -- s in cats to indicate that it is plural ) . Every word comprises one or more morphemes . 

Answer: answer: A morpheme is not identical to a word , and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone , whereas a word , by definition , is freestanding . Every word comprises one or more morphemes .