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inflection.

The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɪnˈflɛkʃən/
  1. The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

    uncountable
    In English, word order often does the work that inflection did in Latin.
  2. The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features. Any specific type of morphological variation, which applies to a given word class.

    countable
    The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.
  3. The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features. An affix representing a given variation.

    countable
    English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.
  4. The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features. Any specific morphological form of a particular word, such as the principal parts for any given stem; any of the declined or conjugated forms that constitute its declension or conjugation.

    countable
    Recite every inflection for each of these words.
  5. A change in pitch or tone of voice.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A change in curvature from concave to convex or from convex to concave.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A turning away from a straight course.

    countable · uncountable
    inflection from the rules
  8. Diffraction.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From older inflexion, borrowed from Middle French inflexion, itself borrowed from Latin inflexiōnem (“alteration”, literally “bending”). The English spelling with ⟨ct⟩ is due to influence from inflect or related words like correction.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.