Morphemes in “spherical”
“spherical” has 3 morphemes: sphere + -ic + -al.
spher
root
+
ic
suffix
+
al
suffix
Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are sphere + -ic + -al.
Each morpheme explained
| Morpheme | Type | Free / bound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| sphere (written spher) | free root | free | a particular environment or walk of life |
| -ic | derivational suffix | bound | relating to, having the nature of |
| -al | derivational suffix | bound | relating to, of the kind of |
How the word is built
sphere → spherical
Each step adds one affix to the word before it; the root “sphere” is where the chain starts.
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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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many morphemes are in "spherical"?
"spherical" has three morphemes: sphere + -ic + -al.
How do you break "spherical" into morphemes?
sphere + -ic + -al. The root is "sphere"; -ic is a derivational suffix, -al is a derivational suffix.
What is the root word of "spherical"?
The root of "spherical" is "sphere", built up as sphere → spherical.
Is this morphology tool free?
Yes. The Fixie morphological analyzer is free with no signup and runs in your browser.