page_title: Morpheme
hierarchical_section_title: Morpheme
caption_attribution_description: 3615-4aDOE photo Ed Westcott 6-21-1947 Oak Ridge Tennessee
context_page_description: A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme is not identical to a word. The main difference between them is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word, by definition, always stands alone. The linguistics field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. When a morpheme stands by itself, it is considered as a root because it has a meaning of its own. When it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an affix because it has a grammatical function. Every word is composed of one or more morphemes.
context_section_description: A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme is not identical to a word. The main difference between them is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone, but a word, by definition, always stands alone. The linguistics field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. When a morpheme stands by itself, it is considered as a root because it has a meaning of its own (such as the morpheme cat). When it depends on another morpheme to express an idea, it is an affix because it has a grammatical function (such as the –s in cats to indicate that it is plural). Every word is composed of one or more morphemes.
caption: A person reading a book
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