Morphemes in “safety”

“safety” has 2 morphemes: safe + -ty.

safe root
+
ty suffix

Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are safe + -ty.

Each morpheme explained

MorphemeTypeFree / boundMeaning
safe free root free free from danger or the risk of harm
-ty derivational suffix bound quality or condition of

How the word is built

safe safety

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

Break any word into morphemes

Prefixes, roots and suffixes with glosses, free and in your browser.

Open the morphological analyzer →

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 "safety"?
"safety" has two morphemes: safe + -ty.
How do you break "safety" into morphemes?
safe + -ty. The root is "safe"; -ty is a derivational suffix.
What is the root word of "safety"?
The root of "safety" is "safe", built up as safe → safety.
Is this morphology tool free?
Yes. The Fixie morphological analyzer is free with no signup and runs in your browser.