Added 9 October 2026
inflection
/ɪnˈflɛkʃən/ noun
In Latin: flexio, flexura Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about inflection at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words 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.
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Any specific type of morphological variation, which applies to a given word class.
The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.
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An affix representing a given variation.
English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)