Standard Lemma guide

morpheme

noun · 2 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmɔː.fiːm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /ˈmɔɹ.fim/
  • Australian, New-Zealand: /ˈmoː.fiːm/

1

noun

Meaning 1

The smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning. It may be a letter, a syllable, or otherwise.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistic-morphology, linguistics, morphology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

minimal meaningful language unit; it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: language unit, linguistic unit

Narrower terms: allomorph, free morpheme, free form, bound morpheme, bound form, classifier, ending, termination

History

Etymology

From French morphème. Ultimately from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, form”). By surface analysis, morph + -eme.

Across languages

Translations

80 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: morfeem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Albanian: morfemë — smallest linguistic unit
  • Arabic: مُورْفِيم (mōrfēm) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Arabic: مُورْفِيم (mūrfīm) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Arabic: مَقْطَع صَرْفِيّ (maqṭaʕ ṣarfiyy) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Armenian: ձեւույթ (jewuytʻ) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Asturian: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Azerbaijani: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Balinese: rupabaga — smallest linguistic unit
  • Bashkir: морфема (morfema) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Belarusian: марфе́ма (marfjéma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Belarusian: марфэ́ма (marféma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Bulgarian: морфе́ма (morféma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Catalan: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Cebuano: morpheme — smallest linguistic unit
  • Chinese Mandarin: 詞素 /词素 (císù) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Chinese Mandarin: 語素 /语素 (yǔsù) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Czech: morfém — smallest linguistic unit
  • Danish: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Dutch: morfeem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Dutch: woorddeel — smallest linguistic unit
  • Esperanto: morfemo — smallest linguistic unit
  • Estonian: morfeem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Faroese: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Finnish: morfeemi — smallest linguistic unit
  • French: morphème — smallest linguistic unit
  • Galician: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Georgian: მორფემი (morpemi) — smallest linguistic unit
  • German: Morphem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Greek: μόρφημα (mórfima) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Hebrew: מוֹרְפֶמָה (morfema) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Hindi: रूपिम (rūpim) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Hungarian: morféma — smallest linguistic unit
  • Icelandic: myndan — smallest linguistic unit
  • Icelandic: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Icelandic: minnsta merkingarbær eining mál — smallest linguistic unit
  • Ido: morfemo — smallest linguistic unit
  • Indonesian: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Italian: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Japanese: 形態素 (keitaiso) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Kazakh: морфема (morfema) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Khmer: រូបសព្ទតា (ruupsaptĕəʼtaa) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Khmer: មូលតា (muulĕəʼtaa) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Korean: 형태소 (hyeongtaeso) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Kyrgyz: морфема (morfema) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Latin: morphema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Latvian: morfēma — smallest linguistic unit
  • Lithuanian: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Macedonian: морфе́ма (morféma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Malay: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Mongolian: бүтээвэр (büteever) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Mongolian: морфем (morfem) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Mongolian: ᠪᠦᠲᠦᠭᠡᠪᠦᠷᠢ (bütügebüri) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Norwegian Bokmål: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Persian: تکواژ (takvâž) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Polish: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Portuguese: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Romanian: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Russian: морфе́ма (morféma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Serbo-Croatian: морфе́ма — smallest linguistic unit
  • Serbo-Croatian: мо̀рфе̄м — smallest linguistic unit
  • Serbo-Croatian: morféma — smallest linguistic unit
  • Serbo-Croatian: mòrfēm — smallest linguistic unit
  • Slovak: morféma — smallest linguistic unit
  • Slovene: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Spanish: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Swahili: mofimu — smallest linguistic unit
  • Swedish: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Tagalog: multuran — smallest linguistic unit
  • Tagalog: morpema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Tajik: морфема (morfema) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Thai: หน่วยคํา (nùai-kam) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Tibetan: སྒྲ་དོམ་ཕྲ་མོ (sgra dom phra mo) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Turkish: biçimbirim — smallest linguistic unit
  • Turkish: morfem — smallest linguistic unit
  • Turkish: biçim birimi — smallest linguistic unit
  • Ukrainian: морфе́ма (morféma) — smallest linguistic unit
  • Uzbek: morfema — smallest linguistic unit
  • Vietnamese: hình vị — smallest linguistic unit
  • Welsh: morffem — smallest linguistic unit