Meanings
plural morphemes
- human sciencesThe smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning. It may be a letter, a syllable, or otherwise.
Just as a regiment is ultimately made up of soldiers, so the sentence is of morphemes—they are its ultimate constituents.
1970, Thomas Pyles, John Algeo, English: An Introduction to Language, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 1351 more example
There is therefore a natural tendency in both American and European structural linguistics to insist that the word should be syntactically decomposed. For writers such as Hockett (1958), or for that matter the early Chomsky (1957), the indivisible unit of grammar was the morpheme, and the relationship of morpheme to morpheme within the word […] was to be handled no differently from that of word to word in any larger structure.
1993, Peter Matthews, “Central Concepts of Syntax”, in Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld, Theo Vennemann, editors, Syntax, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 95
Origin
- Ancient Greekμορφή“shape, form”
- Frenchmorphème
- Englishmorpheme
From French morphème. Ultimately from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, form”). By surface analysis, morph + -eme.
More words from French, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans morfeem
- morfeemsmallest linguistic unit
Arabic مُورْفِيم, مُورْفِيم
- مُورْفِيم (mōrfēm)smallest linguistic unit
- مُورْفِيم (mūrfīm)smallest linguistic unit
- مَقْطَع صَرْفِيّ (maqṭaʕ ṣarfiyy)smallest linguistic unit
Bulgarian морфе́ма
- морфе́ма (morféma)smallest linguistic unit
Catalan morfema
- morfemasmallest linguistic unit
Chinese Mandarin 詞素 /词素, 語素 /语素
- 詞素 /词素 (císù)smallest linguistic unit
- 語素 /语素 (yǔsù)smallest linguistic unit
Czech morfém
- morfémsmallest linguistic unit
Danish morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Dutch morfeem, woorddeel
- morfeemsmallest linguistic unit
- woorddeelsmallest linguistic unit
Esperanto morfemo
- morfemosmallest linguistic unit
Estonian morfeem
- morfeemsmallest linguistic unit
Finnish morfeemi
- morfeemismallest linguistic unit
French morphème
- morphèmesmallest linguistic unit
German Morphem
- Morphemsmallest linguistic unit
Greek μόρφημα
- μόρφημα (mórfima)smallest linguistic unit
Hebrew מוֹרְפֶמָה
- מוֹרְפֶמָה (morfema)smallest linguistic unit
Hindi रूपिम
- रूपिम (rūpim)smallest linguistic unit
Hungarian morféma
- morfémasmallest linguistic unit
Icelandic myndan, morfem
- myndansmallest linguistic unit
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
- minnsta merkingarbær eining málsmallest linguistic unit
Indonesian morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Italian morfema
- morfemasmallest linguistic unit
Japanese 形態素
- 形態素 (keitaiso)smallest linguistic unit
Korean 형태소
- 형태소 (hyeongtaeso)smallest linguistic unit
Latin morphema
- morphemasmallest linguistic unit
Latvian morfēma
- morfēmasmallest linguistic unit
Lithuanian morfema
- morfemasmallest linguistic unit
Malay morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Norwegian Bokmål morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Persian تکواژ
- تکواژ (takvâž)smallest linguistic unit
Polish morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Portuguese morfema
- morfemasmallest linguistic unit
Romanian morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Russian морфе́ма
- морфе́ма (morféma)smallest linguistic unit
Slovak morféma
- morfémasmallest linguistic unit
Spanish morfema
- morfemasmallest linguistic unit
Swahili mofimu
- mofimusmallest linguistic unit
Swedish morfem
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
Tagalog multuran, morpema
- multuransmallest linguistic unit
- morpemasmallest linguistic unit
Thai หน่วยคำ
- หน่วยคำ (nùai-kam)smallest linguistic unit
Turkish biçimbirim, morfem
- biçimbirimsmallest linguistic unit
- morfemsmallest linguistic unit
- biçim birimismallest linguistic unit
Ukrainian морфе́ма
- морфе́ма (morféma)smallest linguistic unit
Vietnamese hình vị
- hình vịsmallest linguistic unit
Welsh morffem
- morffemsmallest linguistic unit
Cite this entry
morpheme. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/morpheme
“morpheme.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/morpheme. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “morpheme,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/morpheme.
Source: morpheme on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.