Meaning & use
morphology
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The branch of linguistics that studies how words are built from smaller parts such as roots, prefixes and endings.
Grammar: Uncountable: English morphology is fairly simple.
Patterns
- the morphology of a language
The course covers English morphology and syntax.
Turkish has rich morphology, with many endings on one word.
Understanding morphology helps students guess new words.
noununcountablebiology
The form and structure of living things or their parts, or the study of this.
Grammar: Used in biology; the morphology of a cell.
Patterns
- the morphology of an organism
Scientists compared the morphology of the two beetle species.
Changes in cell morphology can signal disease.
The morphology of the leaf showed it was a new plant.
noununcountabletechnical
The shape and structure of landforms, or the study of how they develop.
Grammar: Often in geology and geography.
Patterns
- river morphology
River morphology changed after the flood.
The morphology of the coast is shaped by tides.
Geologists study the morphology of volcanoes.
Common combinations
- word morphology
- Word morphology explains why unhappiness has three parts.
- cell morphology
- Cell morphology differs between healthy and sick tissue.
- inflectional morphology
- Inflectional morphology covers endings like -s and -ed.
- derivational morphology
- Derivational morphology creates new words, such as happiness.
- study the morphology
- We studied the morphology of mosses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- structure
- Structure is general; morphology is the study of form in a scientific field.
- form
- Form is everyday, while morphology names the scientific study of form.
- anatomy
- Anatomy focuses on the internal parts of organisms, while morphology also includes outer shape.
- word formation
- Word formation is a plain description of one part of morphology.
Word family
- morpheme noun
- the smallest meaningful unit of language
- morphological adjective
- relating to form and structure
- morphologist noun
- a person who studies morphology
- morph verb
- to change shape gradually
Commonly confused: morphology or morphine? morphology or syntax?
morphology vs morphine
Morphine is a strong painkilling drug; morphology is the study of form.
morphology vs syntax
Syntax studies how words combine into sentences, while morphology studies parts inside words.
Practice
Splitting the word unhappiness into un-, happy and -ness is an exercise in ___.
Choose one answer.
Morphology studies how words are built from parts. Syntax is about sentences, phonology about sounds, and semantics about meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “morphology”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.