What does "interfix" mean?

An empty morph inserted between two morphemes in the process of word formation, such as English -i- and -o-.

What is a synonym for "interfix"?

Common synonyms include: association link, infix.

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An empty morph inserted between two morphemes in the process of word formation, such as English -i- and -o-.
"An empty morph is an interfix if it fulfills all of the following three conditions (Dressier, 1985f)."
2
A transfix.
3
An association link. dated
"LOCANT, n. A number used in the Dyson cipher system for coding the position of substituents of carbon chain, i.e. an interfix."

Verb

1
To attach or anchor (two or more parts) together. transitive
"Generally speaking the article is formed of two pieces which are interfixed for providing a pair of spring urged jaws..."
2
To insert (an interfix) between two morphemes. transitive
"Our goal in the construction of this task was to isolate and highlight the relationship between the interfixed and free forms of the initial constituent."

"An empty morph is an interfix if it fulfills all of the following three conditions (Dressier, 1985f)."

From inter- + fix.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.