Root morpheme

Root morphemes are primary lexical units of a word, and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Root morphemes carry the most significant aspects of a word's semantic content. Content words in nearly all languages* represent root morphemes. Roots can be either free morphemes or bound morphemes. Root morphemes are essential for affixation and compoundss.

Example:

• run is the root of running
• dog is the root of dogs
• child is the root of 'children
• mouse is the root of mice
• rupt is the root of interrupt

* with the exception of typologically isolating languages like Chinese

See also

• morphology
• morphological typology