1. The smallest unit of meaning in a language that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts; a minimal meaningful element.
Usage: linguistics; technical term used in structural linguistics and semiotics

Examples

• In linguistics, a glosseme is considered the fundamental building block of meaning within a language system.
• The word 'unhappy' contains multiple glossemes: 'un-', 'happy', and the grammatical markers that modify its meaning.
• Scholars studying semiotics often analyze glossemes to understand how meaning is constructed and conveyed.
• A single glosseme may carry both semantic and grammatical information.
• The concept of the glosseme helps linguists break down complex words into their most basic meaningful components.