Examples of the word derivation

Derivation vs zero derivation

In morphology, derivation is the process of creating a new word out of an old word, usually by adding a prefix or a suffix. The word comes from the Latin, «to draw off,» and its adjectival form is derivational.

Linguist Geert Booij, in «The Grammar of Words,» notes that one criterion for distinguishing derivation and ​inflection «is that derivation may feed inflection, but not vice versa. Derivation applies to the stem-forms of words, without their inflectional endings, and creates new, more complex stems to which inflectional rules can be applied.»

The derivational change that takes place without the addition of a bound morpheme (such as the use of the noun impact as a verb) is called zero derivation or conversion.

Examples and Observations

«Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. In the formation of drinkable from drink, or disinfect from infect, for example, we see the formation of new words, each with its own grammatical properties.»

– David Crystal, «How Language Works.» Overlook Press, 2005

Derivation vs. Inflection

Morphology may be divided into derivation—rules that form a new word out of old words, like duckfeathers and unkissable—and inflection—rules that modify a word to fit its role in a sentence, what language teachers call conjugation and declension.»

– Steven Pinker, «Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language.» Basic Books, 1999

«The distinction between inflectional morphology and derivational morphology is an ancient one. Fundamentally, it is a matter of the means used to create new lexemes (derivational affixes among other processes) and those used to mark the role of the lexeme in a particular sentence (accidence, inflectional morphology)…

«It seems that although we probably can maintain a distinction between inflectional and derivational morphology relatively well in English—albeit with certain problematical cases which do not invalidate the fundamental notion—the distinction is not helpful to us in understanding any other aspects of the morphology of English. The classification might be useful in terms of typology, but does not throw much light on the behavior of English morphological processes.»

– Laurie Bauer, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag, The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford University Press, 2013

Derivation, Compounding, and Productivity

«Word-formation is traditionally divided into two kinds: derivation and compounding. Whereas in compounding the constituents of a word are themselves lexemes, this is not the case in derivation. For instance, -ity is not a lexeme, and hence taxability is a case of derivation. The word income tax, on the other hand, is a compound since both income and tax are lexemes. Changing the word class of a word, as happened in the creation of the verb to tax from the noun tax, is called conversion, and may be subsumed under derivation…

«Morphological patterns that can be systematically extended are called productive. The derivation of nouns ending in -er from verbs is productive in English, but the derivation of nouns in -th from adjectives is not: it is hard to expand the set of words of this type such as depth, health, length, strength, and wealth. Marchand (1969: 349) has observed some occasional coinings like coolth (after warmth) but notes that such word coinings are often jocular, and hence do not represent a productive pattern. If we want to coin a new English noun on the basis of an adjective, we have to use -ness or -ity instead.»

– Geert Booij, «The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology.» Oxford University Press, 2005

Changes to Meaning and Word Class: Prefixes and Suffixes

«Derivational prefixes do not normally alter the word class of the base word; that is, a prefix is added to a noun to form a new noun with a different meaning:

Derivational suffixes, on the other hand, usually change both the meaning and the word class; that is, a suffix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a different meaning:

• patient: outpatient
• group: subgroup
• trial: retrial
• adjective — dark: darkness
• verb — agree: agreement
• noun — friend: friendship«

– Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Geoffrey Leech, «Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.» Longman, 2002

Derived words

The derived words or complex words are words that come from another word which is called a primitive word. For example, the word tree it is a primitive word since it does not derive from any other. Several derived words can be extracted from this word. For example: grove, arboreal, wooded, little tree.

So a derived word belongs to the same semantic field than the primitive word. This means that the derivative will have some conceptual relationship with its primitive words. Following the example of the word tree (primitive word) we know that its derived word grove means «set of trees».

How are derived words formed?

Derived words are formed by adding suffixes or prefixes to the primitive word:

Examples of words derived from suffixes

1. Whiteness: primitive word White + suffix —ura
2. Tablespoon: primitive word spoon + suffix —gives
3. To flourish: primitive word flower + suffix -ecer
4. True: primitive word truth + suffix -ero
5. Violinist: primitive word fiddle + suffix -ist
6. Self-conscious: primitive word complex + suffix -ada
7. Contemplative: primitive word contemplate + suffix -ivo
8. Long lasting: primitive word Lasted + suffix -ero
9. Irritable: primitive word irritate + suffix -able
10. Nose or proboscis: primitive word nose + suffixes -on or -udo
11. Blackish: primitive word black + suffix -I think
12. Original: primitive word source + suffix -inal
13. Parasitic: primitive word parasite + suffix -Aryan
14. Leaden: primitive word lead + suffix -i
15. Unbreakable: primitive word to break + suffix -ible
16. Pinkish: primitive word pink + suffix -eo

Words derived from prefixes

1. Antiaircraft: prefix anti- + primitive word aerial
2. Atheist: prefix to- + primitive words teo (God)
3. Bilingual: prefix bi- + primitive word lingual (language)
4. Live together: prefix with- + primitive word to live
5. Undo: prefix des- + primitive word make
6. Single color: prefix monkey- + primitive word Colour.
7. Pluricellular: prefix pluri- + primitive word cell
8. Polysyllable: prefix cop- + primitive word syllable
9. Predict: prefix pre- + primitive word say
10. Redo: prefix re- + primitive word make
11. Underground: prefix sub- + primitive word land
12. Overlap: prefix Super- + primitive word set
13. Transfer: prefix after- + primitive word happen
14. Sole proprietorship: prefix uni- + primitive word person
15. Deputy director: prefix vice- + primitive word director

Examples of derived words

In the following examples, a primitive word, from which several derived words emerge.

1. Love: love affair, love affair.
2. Old: antiquity, ancient.
3. Weapon: armor, armament, armed.
4. Garbage: garbage dump, garbage dump.
5. Corpse: cadaverous.
6. Coffee: caffeine, cafeteria, coffee maker.
7. Box: fit, drawer, cashier.
8. Countryside: camping, camping.
9. Singing: song, singer-songwriter, songbook, singer.
10. Car: lane, road, cart.
11. Letter: postman, primer, wallet, correspondence.
12. Light blue: matchmaker.
13. Darling: heavenly, heavenly.
14. Movie theater: filmmaker, cinema, cinephile, cinematographer.
15. Sure: clarity, chiaroscuro.
16. Class: classification, class.
17. Weather: acclimatize, climate.
18. Coward: cowardice, cowardice.
19. Blanket: shelter, shelter.
20. Food: eat, trough, dining room.
21. Cream: creamy, creamy.
22. Notebook: bind.
23. Finger: thimble.
24. Tooth: dental, dentist, toothpaste.
25. Ten: tithe, tenth.
26. Elite: elitist, elitism.
27. Broom: brush, brush.
28. Fiction: fictitious.
29. Flower: vase, florist, flourish, flourishing, floral, bloom.
30. Fry: fried, deep fryer, frying.
31. Front: face, frontal, face.
32. Cold: cool, cold.
33. Fruit: frugal, fruitful, fruity, greengrocer, fruity.
34. People: gentilicio, courtesy.
35. Balloon: encompass, global, globalization.
36. Live: habitation, habit, habitual, habitat.
37. Flour: flour.
38. Story: historical, history, historicity, historian.
39. Leaf: litter, defoliate.
40. Man: manhood, shoulder pads.
41. Invention: reinvent, inventory, invention, inventive, inventor.
42. Young: youth, rejuvenate, jovial.
43. Jewel: jewelry, jewelery.
44. Juice: wipe, juicy, juicer.
45. Pencil: pen.
46. Milk: milkman, dairy.
47. Book: bookstore, bookcase, notebook.
48. Wrench: key chain.
49. Rain: drizzle, rainy.
50. Light: luminous, luminous, luminescent, star, illuminate.
51. Hand: slap, mitt, handle, handle, handlebar.
52. Makeup: make-up remover, makeup artist, makeup artist.
53. Best: improve, improvement, improvement.
54. Less: minority, lessen, minimal.
55. Mine: ore, miner, mining.
56. Wet: soak, wet.
57. Death: deadly, deadly, deadly.
58. Woman: womanizer, slut, little women.
59. World: worldly, worldly.
60. Music: musician, musical, musicalization.
61. Boy: childhood, childish, babysitter.
62. Knot: knot, unknot.
63. New: novelty, newbie, renew.
64. Hate: hateful, hateful.
65. Eye: sideways eye, buttonhole, dark circles, eyeing.
66. Dark: darkness, darkening, chiaroscuro.
67. Bread: bakery, baker, breadmaker, breading.
68. Paper: ballot, stationery, paper.
69. Tablets: filling, filling.
70. Hair: fur, hairy.
71. Person: personal, character, personify.
72. Fish: fishing, fish tank, fish.
73. Painting: painterly, paint, brush, brushes.
74. Flat: stomp, stomp.
75. Feather: feather duster, plumage, feather jacket, plumage.
76. Town: population, town, small town, popular.
77. Lung: pneumonia, pulmonary.
78. Pulse: pulse, bracelet, pulse, pulse.
79. Fist: stab, dagger, handful, punch.
80. Pure: purify, purity.
81. Crank: unhinged, unhinged.
82. Clock: watchmaker, watchmaker.
83. rose: rosedal, pinkish, roses.
84. Salt: salty, salt shaker, salty, salty.
85. Blood: bloody, bleeding, bleeding.
86. Sign: signal, signaling, pointing.
87. Be quiet: silence, silent.
88. Sun: solar, solstice, sunny.
89. Shadow: parasol, parasol, hat, hatter.
90. Sound: rattle, rattle.
91. Subject: fasten, fastened.
92. Tapestry: upholstery, upholstery.
93. To have: fork, holding.
94. Theory: theorem, theorize.
95. Sad: sadden, sadness, sadly.
96. Green: greenish, greenish, verdigris.
97. Old: old age, aged.
98. Wind: windy.
99. Live: live together.
100. Shoe: shoemaker, shoemaker, shoemaker, slipper.

See also:

Derivation is the process of creating new words. The technical term derivational morphology is the study of the formation of new words. Here are some examples of words which are built up from smaller parts:

• black + bird combine to form blackbird
• dis- + connect combine to form disconnect
• predict + -able combine to form predictable

Combination processes are also used to form brand-new words which add to the English vocabulary. Some examples from recent years are speed-dating and smartphone.

We can make a more complex word from a simpler one by adding a short element at the beginning or end. Suppose we start from the word kind. We could add the element un- to from unkind:

• un- + kind → unkind

These two parts are of different types:

• Kind can be used as a word on its own. It acts as a root word or lexical base to which we can add other elements.
• We can’t use un- as a word by itself. It has to be attached to a lexical base like kind.

Elements like un- which are attached at the beginning of a root word are called prefixes. The prefix un- can be added to many different lexical bases, such as happy, pleasant, wise (to give unhappy, unpleasant, unwise, and so on).

Again starting with kind as our lexical base, we could instead add the element -ness to form unkindness:

• kind + -ness → kindness

The element -ness is a suffix. It is not used as a word on its own, but has to be attached at the end of a lexical base. For example, it can also be added to rude or blind to give rudeness, blindness.

Adding a prefix or suffix can change the meaning of a word. For example, unhappy means ‘not happy’, so the meaning change is quite important! There are regular patterns to these meaning changes: unpleasant means ‘not pleasant’, unwise means ‘not wise’, and so on.

Adding a suffix can also change the word class: that is, produce a different type of word which behaves differently when it combines with other words in sentences. For example:

• Kind is an adjective that fits into combinations like a kind friend.
• Adding -ness creates a noun, kindness, that fits into patterns like a great kindness.

We can also combine more than one word (or lexical base) to form a more complex word called a compound:

• head + ache → headache
• camera + shy → camera-shy
• dry + clean→ dry-clean

Compounds can be written in different ways: as a single word, with a hyphen, or even as two separate words (e.g. swimming pool). Often there are variant ways of writing the same item (e.g. bus stop, bus-stop).

Another word-forming process is conversion, where a word is shifted to a different word class without adding any elements. This means it is used as a different type of word. For example:

• Eye is usually a noun: it is found in combinations like an eye, blue eyes to refer to a thing or things.
• But, through conversion, it can also be used as a verb to indicate an action: She eyed them suspiciously.

Another example is hopeful:

• This is usually an adjective which indicates a property of something or someone (e.g. a hopeful sign).
• But by conversion it has also come to be used as a noun, as in these Olympic hopefuls, which refers to a group of people (who are hoping for Olympic success).

Other processes for forming words include the following:

• clipping, where words are shortened by removing syllables, e.g. laboratory → lab; Christopher → Chris
• blending, where two lexical bases are blended together, e.g. breakfast + lunch → brunch; gigantic + enormous → ginormous
• initialisms, made up of the first letters of a series of words: frequently asked question → FAQ; laughing out loud → LOL

Some initialisms are pronounced as sequences of letters, e.g. VIP (from very important person). Others are pronounced as ordinary words: for example, NATO (from North Atlantic Treaty Organization) rhymes with the name Plato. Initialisms of this second type are called acronyms.

Last Updated:
10 Mar 2023
— Updated example sentences