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combining form

Syllabification: (com·bin·ing form)

Definition of combining form

noun

Grammar

a linguistic element used in combination with another element to form a word (e.g., Anglo- ‘English’ in Anglo-American, bio- ‘life’ in biology, -graphy ‘writing’ in biography).

In this dictionary, combining form is used to denote an element that contributes to the particular sense of words (as with bio- and -graphy in biography), as distinct from a prefix or suffix that adjusts the sense of or determines the function of words (as with un-, -able, and -ation).

combining form in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of combining form in the British & World English dictionary

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