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A word is something spoken by the mouth that is meaningful. It is usually part of a sentence which makes the meaning clear.
Words are also used in writing, which is a relatively modern invention. In alphabetic writing, a word is a collection of letters. The word then communicates a meaning that can also usually be pronounced. A logogram is also a word.
Some words have more than one meaning; for example, 'spring' can refer to the season, the device, or a conjugation of the verb. They are homonyms. Some words have different pronunciation; for example, 'wind' (the noun) and 'wind' (the verb) are pronounced differently.
Some words have different spelling; for example, 'color' and 'colour' are both correct. ‘Color' is used in American English, and ‘colour' is used in British English. Some words can be only one letter such as "a" and "I" in English. Besides English, all other languages have their own words. When written with an alphabet, words are usually separated by a space. When written with ideograms, each word is usually a separate symbol.
Words can be invented, which are then called neologisms. For example, radar was originally an acronym but became an actual word. Two words may be joined to make a compound word.
Fuller definition
[change | change source]A word is the smallest thing that can be said with meaning. For example, hello is a word.
That contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but may not stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme (such as oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), and a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just given, they are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed).
The meaning of words can be found in a dictionary.
Related pages
[change | change source]- Lexeme
- Parts of speech
- Heteronym — when two different words have the same spelling
More reading
[change | change source]- Iggulden, Hal; Iggulden, Conn (2007). "The Origin of Words". The Dangerous Book for Boys. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 214–216. ISBN 978-0061243585.
