allomorph.

1. One of the different forms through which the same morpheme appears in different contexts.

2. A crystalline form of a substance whose chemical identity also permits other crystal structures.

3. A mineral form retaining its earlier external shape after its material has changed or been replaced.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• plural allomorph
• conditioned allomorph
• distribution of allomorphs

On the page

The final sounds in cats and dogs are different allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Singular allomorph; plural allomorphs. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Dictionary and its medical material verify linguistic variant, crystalline form, and altered mineral pseudomorph; specialist labels distinguish all three. Writing functions: language analysis, conceptual distinction.