morph

Morph- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “form, structure.” It is often occasionally used in scientific terms, especially in biology and linguistics.

Morph- comes from Greek morphḗ, meaning “form.”

What are variants of morph-?

Morph– is a variant of morpho–, which loses its –o– when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Additional related combining forms include –morphic, –morphism, and –morphous. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles on all four combining forms.

One example of a scientific term that features the form morph– is morphosis, “the sequence or manner of development or change in an organism or any of its parts.” The word morphosis comes from Greek mórphōsis, which uses the equivalent of morph– in that language.

As we have seen, morph– means “form,” and the –osis portion of the word refers to “action” or “state of being,” from Greek –ōsis. Morphosis literally means “the state of forms.”

What are some words that use the combining form morph-?

• morphactin
• morphallaxis
• morpheme (using the equivalent form of morph– in French)
• morpholine
• morpholino

What are some other forms that morph– may be commonly confused with?

• multi-
• myria-

Not every word that begins with the exact letters morph-, such as morphine, is necessarily using the combining form morph– to denote “form.” Learn how the drug morphine got its name at our entry for the word.

The suffix –eme is used in linguistics to mean “significant unit.” With this in mind, what does morpheme mean?