An affix attached at the beginning of a base word or word root that changes the meaning of the word.
Prefix
100
An orthographic unit of two or three letters at the beginning or end of words that are blended together. Every sound represented in a blend is pronounced, if only briefly.
Blend
100
Words made up of two smaller words.
Compound Words
200
An affix attached at the end of a base word or word root.
Suffix
200
Two letters that represent one sound.
Digraph
200
The transition from one syllable to the next.
Syllable Juncture
300
A word to which prefixes and/or suffixes are added.
Base Word
300
Meaning units of language that stand alone as words.
Free Morphemes
300
Syllables that end with a long vowel sound.
Open Syllables
400
Suffixes that change the verb tense or number of word.
Inflectional Endings
400
Meaning units of language that cannot stand alone as a word.
Bound Morphemes
400
A syllable that ends with or is “closed” by a consonant sound. A closed syllable contains a short vowel sound that is closed by two consonants.
Closed Syllables
500
Affixes added to base words that affect the meaning and/or part of speech.
Derivational Affixes
500
The process of analyzing or breaking down a word in terms of its meaning units or morphemes.
Morphemic Analysis
500
The process of determining the pronunciation and/or meaning of a word by analyzing word parts including syllables, base words, and affixes.