Word
In language, a word is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning). This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme (for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just mentioned, these are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed). A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes (rock-s, red-ness, quick-ly, run-ning, un-expect-ed), or more than one root in a compound (black-board, rat-race). Words can be put together to build larger elements of language, such as phrases (a red rock), clauses (I threw a rock), and sentences (He threw a rock too but he missed).
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Famous quotes containing the word word:
“I hardly said a word to my wife until I said ‘yes’ to divorce.”
—John Milius, U.S. screenwriter, Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939)
““Friend”Mthe finest word in any language.”
—Talbot Jennings (1896–1985)
“Lora May: Did you ever stop to think, Porter, that in over three years there’s one word we’ve never said to each other, even in fun.
Porter: To you, I’m a cash register. You can’t love a cash register.
Lora May: And I’m part of your inventory. You can’t love that either.”
—Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993)