Morphemes in “editorial”
“editorial” has 3 morphemes: edit + -or + -ial.
Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are edit + -or + -ial.
Each morpheme explained
| Morpheme | Type | Free / bound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| edit | free root | free | prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, or adapting |
| -or | derivational suffix | bound | a person or thing that does (agent) |
| -ial | derivational suffix | bound | relating to, of the kind of (form of -al) |
How the word is built
edit → editor → editorial
Each step adds one affix to the word before it; the root “edit” is where the chain starts.
Morphemes are not syllables
Morphemes are units of meaning; syllables are units of sound. The boundaries often fall in different places, which is why “editorial” splits one way for a morphology exercise and another for a syllable count.
Break any word into morphemes
Prefixes, roots and suffixes with glosses, free and in your browser.
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Segmentation derived from MorphyNet (Batsuren, Bella & Giunchiglia, 2021; CC BY-SA 3.0, built from Wiktionary), with hand-written affix glosses and root meanings from WordNet. Reviewed for classroom use; tell us if you spot an error.