-eme

/-iːm/

suffix

Indicating a fundamental unit in some kind of structure, chiefly linguistic structure.

“phone + -eme → phoneme”

OriginEnglish phonemeclip. ← Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma) ← Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́ →
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Meanings

suffix
  1. Indicating a fundamental unit in some kind of structure, chiefly linguistic structure.

    phone + -eme → phoneme

    2 more examples

    metaphor + -eme → metaphoreme

    prosody + -eme → prosodeme

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
  3. Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
  4. Ancient Greekφωνέω (phōnéō)
  5. Ancient Greekφώνημα (phṓnēma)
  6. Englishphonemeclip.
  7. English-eme

Extracted from phoneme, from Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). Thus from a hypothetical suffix -ημα (-ēma), formed from -έω (-éō) + -μα (-ma).

More words from Ancient Greek

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan -ema
  • -emalinguistic base unit
French -ème
  • -èmelinguistic base unit
Hungarian -éma
  • -émalinguistic base unit
Polish -em
  • -emlinguistic base unit
Portuguese -ema
  • -emalinguistic base unit
Russian -е́ма
  • -е́ма (-éma)linguistic base unit
Spanish -ema
  • -emalinguistic base unit
Cite this entry
APA

-eme. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-eme

MLA

“-eme.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-eme. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “-eme,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-eme.

Source: -eme on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.