Morpheme: meaning, definitions and examples

linguistic unit

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language that carries meaning. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without losing its sense. Morphemes can be roots, prefixes, and suffixes. They are the building blocks of words, and understanding them is crucial in linguistic analysis.

grammatical unit, linguistic unit, morphological unit.

Which Synonym Should You Choose?

Word	Description / Examples
morpheme	Use in linguistic discussions when referring to the smallest meaningful unit in a language. The word 'unhappiness' contains three morphemes: 'un-', 'happi', and '-ness'.
linguistic unit	Broadly applies to any basic element of language, useful in general linguistic studies or discussions. A phoneme is considered a linguistic unit in the study of phonetics.
grammatical unit	Appropriate in conversations about elements of grammar, often in educational or academic settings. In the sentence 'She is going to school,' 'is going' is a grammatical unit.
morphological unit	Use in morphological analysis, particularly when focusing on the structure and formation of words. Prefix, suffix, and roots are types of morphological units.

Examples of usage

• The word 'unhappiness' consists of three morphemes: 'un-', 'happy', and '-ness'.

• In the word 'unhappiest', 'un-', 'happy', '-est' are all morphemes.

linguistics

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. It is the basic unit of morphology, the study of word structure. Morphemes can be free or bound, and they play a crucial role in understanding how words are formed and the relationships between them.

Examples of usage

• The word 'cats' consists of two morphemes: 'cat' (the root) and '-s' (the plural marker).

• The morpheme 'un-' in 'unhappy' indicates negation.