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Word formation
| Term | Definition | |
|---|---|---|
| Borrowing | The process of taking words from other languages. | piano, tycoon, apartheid |
| Acronym | A new word formed from the initial, letters of other words. | NASA, lol, Benelux |
| Clipping | The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form. | bra, memo. phone |
| Blending | The process of combining the beginning of one word and the end of another word to form a new word. | brunch, motel, vlog |
| Backformation | The process of reducing a word such as a noun to a shorter version and using it as a new word such as a verb. | babysit, donate, edit |
| Conversion | The process of changing the function of a word, such as a noun to a verb, as a way of forming new words. | takeover, printout, access |
| Derivation | The process of forming new words by adding affixes. | unhappy, boyish, useless |
| Compounding | The process of combining two (or more) words to form a new word. | textbook, full-time. smalltalk |
| Coinage | The invention of new words. | Hoover, nylon, scrooge, quark |