Morphemes in “illogical”

“illogical” has 3 morphemes: in- + logic + -al.

il prefix
+
logic root
+
al suffix

Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are in- + logic + -al.

Each morpheme explained

MorphemeTypeFree / boundMeaning
in- (written il) derivational prefix bound not (form of in- before l)
logic free root free the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference
-al derivational suffix bound relating to, of the kind of

How the word is built

logic logical illogical

Each step adds one affix to the word before it; the root “logic” is where the chain starts.

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Related words

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many morphemes are in "illogical"?
"illogical" has three morphemes: in- + logic + -al.
How do you break "illogical" into morphemes?
in- + logic + -al. The root is "logic"; in- is a derivational prefix, -al is a derivational suffix.
What is the root word of "illogical"?
The root of "illogical" is "logic", built up as logic → logical → illogical.
Is this morphology tool free?
Yes. The Fixie morphological analyzer is free with no signup and runs in your browser.