Morphemes in “interracial”

“interracial” has 3 morphemes: inter- + race + -ial.

inter prefix
+
rac root
+
ial suffix

Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are inter- + race + -ial.

Each morpheme explained

MorphemeTypeFree / boundMeaning
inter- derivational prefix bound between, among
race (written rac) free root free any competition
-ial derivational suffix bound relating to, of the kind of (form of -al)

How the word is built

race racial interracial

Each step adds one affix to the word before it; the root “race” 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 "interracial"?
"interracial" has three morphemes: inter- + race + -ial.
How do you break "interracial" into morphemes?
inter- + race + -ial. The root is "race"; inter- is a derivational prefix, -ial is a derivational suffix.
What is the root word of "interracial"?
The root of "interracial" is "race", built up as race → racial → interracial.
Is this morphology tool free?
Yes. The Fixie morphological analyzer is free with no signup and runs in your browser.