Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that carries meaning or grammatical function. It may stand alone as a word or combine with other morphemes.

Free Morpheme: A morpheme that can occur as an independent word. Unlike bound morphemes, it can stand alone, as English cat does.
Inflection: A morphological process that marks grammatical features without creating a new lexeme. Inflectional morphemes mark features such as tense, number, and case.
Morpheme–phoneme distinction: The distinction between meaning-bearing linguistic units and sound units that distinguish words. A phoneme can change meaning without itself carrying meaning or grammatical function.
Morphological awareness: The ability to recognize and manipulate morphemes within words. Recognizing roots and affixes helps explain relationships among complex words.
Bound Morpheme: A morpheme that cannot occur independently and must attach to another form. Prefixes and suffixes show how morphemes can require a host.
Derivation (linguistics): A word-formation process that creates a lexeme or changes a word's grammatical category. Derivational morphemes can create a new word, as happy becomes happiness.
Morpheme–syllable distinction: The distinction between grammatical or lexical units and units of spoken rhythm organized around vowel sounds. A single morpheme may contain several syllables, and a syllable may cross morpheme boundaries.
Morphological analysis: The linguistic study of word structure and the ways words are formed. It uses morphemes to describe how words encode lexical and grammatical information.
Root (linguistics): The core lexical element of a word, which may combine with affixes. A root supplies the central lexical content in many complex words.
Allomorph: One of multiple phonological or morphological forms that realize the same morpheme. A morpheme can have different spoken forms, such as the plural endings in cats and dogs.

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