noun
- a word or morpheme that changes form to express grammatical relationships such as tense, number, case, or person
- something that inflects or bends; a device or agent that causes bending or deflection
Usage: linguistics; grammar
Usage: technical; rare
Examples
- In English, 'walk' is an inflector that becomes 'walked' in the past tense.
- The verb 'be' is a highly irregular inflector with forms like 'am,' 'is,' and 'are.'
- Linguists study how inflectors mark grammatical features in different languages.
- Latin nouns are complex inflectors, changing form based on case and number.
- The suffix '-ed' functions as an inflector that signals past tense in regular verbs.