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Inflection

//ɪnˈflɛkʃən// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms 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. 2
    the patterns of stress and intonation in a language wordnet
  3. 3
    The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.; Any specific type of morphological variation, which applies to a given class of terms. countable

    "The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages."

  4. 4
    a manner of speaking in which the loudness or pitch or tone of the voice is modified wordnet
  5. 5
    The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms 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."

Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    deviation from a straight or normal course wordnet
  2. 7
    The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.; Any specific morphological form of a particular term, 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."

  3. 8
    a change in the form of a word (usually by adding a suffix) to indicate a change in its grammatical function wordnet
  4. 9
    A change in pitch or tone of voice. countable, uncountable
  5. 10
    A change in curvature from concave to convex or from convex to concave. countable, uncountable
  6. 11
    A turning away from a straight course. countable, uncountable

    "inflection from the rules"

  7. 12
    Diffraction. countable, uncountable

Etymology

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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