allomorph

linguistics

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June 23, 2026

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In linguistics, an allomorph refers to one of the different forms a morpheme can take in various contexts. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. For example, the English plural morpheme has several allomorphs: the "-s" in "cats," the "-en" in "oxen," and a zero suffix in "sheep". The study of these variations and their distribution is called morphophonemics. The term "allomorph" was first used in 1945.12

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linguistics
Morphology
…morpheme are said to be allomorphs of that morpheme. For example, the regular plurals of English nouns are formed by adding one of three morphs on to the form of the singular: /s/, /z/, or /iz/ (in the corresponding written forms both /s/ and /z/ are written -s and /iz/…
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…morpheme are said to be allomorphs of that morpheme. For example, the regular plurals of English nouns are formed by adding one of three morphs on to the form of the singular: /s/, /z/, or /iz/ (in the corresponding written forms both /s/ and /z/ are written -s and /iz/…
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morpheme
…of a morpheme are called allomorphs; the ending -s, indicating plural in “cats,” “dogs,” the -es in “dishes,” and the -en of “oxen” are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme. The word “talked” is represented by two morphemes, “talk” and the past-tense morpheme, here indicated by -ed. The study of…
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…of a morpheme are called allomorphs; the ending -s, indicating plural in “cats,” “dogs,” the -es in “dishes,” and the -en of “oxen” are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme. The word “talked” is represented by two morphemes, “talk” and the past-tense morpheme, here indicated by -ed. The study of…
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