[pol-ee-sin-thet-ik] 
| 1. | (of a language) characterized by a prevalence of relatively long words containing a large number of affixes to express syntactic relationships and meanings. Many American Indian languages are polysynthetic. Compare analytic (def. 3), synthetic (def. 3). |
| 2. | of or pertaining to polysynthesism. |
| pol·y·syn·thet·ic (pŏl'ē-sĭn-thět'ĭk) adj. Of or relating to a language such as Eskimo or Mohawk, characterized by long, morphologically complex words with a large number of affixes that express syntactic relationships and meanings usually expressed as phrases or sentences in other languages. |
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