the smallest unit of meaning that a word can be divided into 词素;语素 The word ‘like’ contains one morpheme but ‘un-like-ly’ contains three. like 一词含一个词素,而 un-like-ly 则含三个。
Word Originlate 19th cent.: from French morphème, from Greek morphē ‘form’, on the pattern of French phonème ‘phoneme’.