Morphemes in “unhappiness”
“unhappiness” has 3 morphemes: un- + happy + -ness.
Spelling changes when the parts join: the boxes show the letters as written; the morphemes themselves are un- + happy + -ness.
Each morpheme explained
| Morpheme | Type | Free / bound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| un- | derivational prefix | bound | not, opposite of; reverse the action |
| happy (written happi) | free root | free | enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure |
| -ness | derivational suffix | bound | state or quality of being |
How the word is built
happy → unhappy → unhappiness
Each step adds one affix to the word before it; the root “happy” 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 “unhappiness” 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.
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.