ALLOMORPH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does allomorph mean? 

• ALLOMORPH (noun)
  The noun ALLOMORPH has 2 senses:

1. any of several different crystalline forms of the same chemical compound

2. a variant phonological representation of a morpheme

  Familiarity information: ALLOMORPH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLOMORPH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several different crystalline forms of the same chemical compound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Context example:

calcium carbonate occurs in the allomorphs calcite and aragonite

Hypernyms ("allomorph" is a kind of...):

chemical compound; compound ((chemistry) a substance formed by chemical union of two or more elements or ingredients in definite proportion by weight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A variant phonological representation of a morpheme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the final sounds of 'bets' and 'beds' and 'horses' and 'oxen' are allomorphs of the English plural morpheme

Hypernyms ("allomorph" is a kind of...):

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allomorph"):

morphophoneme ((linguistics) the phonemes (or strings of phonemes) that constitute the various allomorphs of a morpheme)