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inflection

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From older inflexion, borrowed from Middle French inflexion, itself borrowed from Latin inflexiōnem (alteration, literally bending). The English spelling with ⟨ct⟩ is due to influence from inflect or related words like correction.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪnˈflɛkʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
  • Hyphenation: in‧flec‧tion

Noun

inflection (countable and uncountable, plural inflections)

  1. (grammar, uncountable) The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.
    In English, word order often does the work that inflection did in Latin.
    1. (countable) Any specific type of morphological variation, which applies to a given class of terms.
      The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.
    2. (countable) An affix representing a given variation.
      English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.
    3. (countable) Any specific morphological form of a particular term, such as the principal parts for any given stem; any of the declined or conjugated forms that constitute its declension or conjugation.
      Recite every inflection for each of these words.
  2. A change in pitch or tone of voice.
    If he's lying, his inflection changes.
  3. (mathematics) A change in curvature from concave to convex or from convex to concave.
  4. A turning away from a straight course.
    inflection from the rules
  5. (optometry) Diffraction.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

(grammar):

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

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