Standard Lemma guide

clitic

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈklɪtɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪtɪk

1

noun

Meaning 1

A morpheme that functions like a word, but never appears as an independent word, instead being always attached to a following or preceding word (or, in some cases, within a surrounding word).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κλιτικός (klitikós, “inflexional”).

Across languages

Translations

44 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Belarusian: клі́тыка (klítyka) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Breton: stagadenn — morpheme attached to another word
  • Bulgarian: кли́тика (klítika) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Catalan: clític — morpheme attached to another word
  • Chinese Mandarin: 附著詞素 /附着词素 (fùzhuó císù) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Czech: příklonka — morpheme attached to another word
  • Danish: klitikon — morpheme attached to another word
  • Dutch: cliticum — morpheme attached to another word
  • Estonian: kliitik — morpheme attached to another word
  • Estonian: liidik — morpheme attached to another word
  • Estonian: liidepartikkel — morpheme attached to another word
  • Finnish: liitepartikkeli — morpheme attached to another word
  • French: clitique — morpheme attached to another word
  • Georgian: კლიტიკა (ḳliṭiḳa) — morpheme attached to another word
  • German: Klitikon — morpheme attached to another word
  • Greek: εγκλιτικό (egklitikó) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Hebrew: נתמך (nitmákh) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Hungarian: simulószó — morpheme attached to another word
  • Hungarian: klitikum — morpheme attached to another word
  • Hungarian: függőszó — morpheme attached to another word
  • Icelandic: sníkill — morpheme attached to another word
  • Indonesian: klitik — morpheme attached to another word
  • Italian: clitico — morpheme attached to another word
  • Japanese: 接語 (setsugo) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Korean: 접어 (jeobeo) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Macedonian: клитика (klitika) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Norwegian Bokmål: klitikon — morpheme attached to another word
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: klitikon — morpheme attached to another word
  • Iranian Persian: واژِهبَسْت (vâže-bast) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Polish: klityka — morpheme attached to another word
  • Portuguese: clítico — morpheme attached to another word
  • Romanian: clitic — morpheme attached to another word
  • Russian: кли́тика (klítika) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Serbo-Croatian: клѝтика — morpheme attached to another word
  • Serbo-Croatian: klìtika — morpheme attached to another word
  • Slovak: príklonka — morpheme attached to another word
  • Slovene: breznaglasnica — morpheme attached to another word
  • Slovene: naslonka — morpheme attached to another word
  • Slovene: klitika — morpheme attached to another word
  • Spanish: clítico — morpheme attached to another word
  • Swedish: klitikon — morpheme attached to another word
  • Turkish: ingklitik — morpheme attached to another word
  • Ukrainian: клі́тика (klítyka) — morpheme attached to another word
  • Welsh: gogwyddair — morpheme attached to another word