What term refers to the smallest units of meaning in words?

• A. Diphthongs
• B. Morphemes
• C. Encode
• D. Justified Print

Answer: (B)

The concept being tested is identifying the smallest units of meaning in words, which are morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries semantic content. Some morphemes can stand alone as words (free morphemes) like “book” or “run,” while others must attach to other morphemes (bound morphemes), such as the plural suffix -s in “cats” or the past tense -ed in “walked.” By breaking a word into its morphemes, you see how meaning is built piece by piece.

Diphthongs are about sound, specifically two adjacent vowel sounds within one syllable, not about meaning units. Encode is a process term describing converting information into a coded form, not a unit of meaning. Justified print is a formatting concept, unrelated to the meaning-bearing parts of words.