Words

A word is a unit of language that has a phonetic value and carries meaning. It consists of a root (or stem) and zero (or more) affixes.

For example, here is a root word with various affixes:

Words can be combined to create phrases, clauses, and sentences.

In linguistic terms a word is a component at the phrase level and above. It can also be described as the minimal possible unit in a reply or the smallest component that can be moved within a sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical. (A good idea is to read that last sentence over again to make sure you understand it; that's what words are all about!)

Words can be difficult to identify or delimit. In spoken language, the distinction of individual words is usually given by rhythm or accent. In written language space marks usually help identify individual words.

Despite this, the question How many words are there in the English language? remains unanswered. This is because of the difficulty in deciding what counts as a discrete word and what counts as English:

• Is dog the same word as dogs?

• Is lebensraum an English word? What about ersatz or apartheid?

• Is google a word?

Many questions to be answered...