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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Inflection \In*flec"tion\, noun [L. inflexio : cf. F. inflexion. See {Inflect}.] [Written also {inflecxion}.]
1. The act of inflecting, or the state of being inflected.
2. A bend; a fold; a curve; a turn; a twist.
3. A slide, modulation, or accent of the voice; as, the rising and the falling inflection.
4. (Gram.) The variation or change which words undergo to mark case, gender, number, comparison, tense, person, mood, voice, etc.
5. (Mus.) (a) Any change or modification in the pitch or tone of the voice. (b) A departure from the monotone, or reciting note, in chanting.
6. (Opt.) Same as {Diffraction}.
{Point of inflection} (Geom.), the point on opposite sides of which a curve bends in contrary ways.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
inflection
noun
1: a change in the form of a word (usually by adding a suffix) to indicate a change in its grammatical function [syn: {inflexion}]
2: the patterns of stress and intonation in a language [syn: {prosody}]
3: deviation from a straight or normal course [syn: {flection}, {flexion}]
4: a manner of speaking in which the loudness or pitch or tone of the voice is modified [syn: {modulation}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
96 Moby Thesaurus words for "inflection": IC analysis, L, S-curve, accent, accidence, affix, affixation, allomorph, angle, apex, articulation, bend, bending, bifurcation, bight, bound morpheme, bow, bowing, cant, chevron, coin, conflexure, conjugation, corner, crank, crook, crotchet, cutting, declension, deflection, derivation, difference of form, dogleg, elbow, ell, enclitic, enunciation, flection, flex, flexure, fork, formative, free form, furcation, geanticline, geosyncline, hairpin turn, hook, immediate constituent analysis, infix, infixation, intonation, intonation pattern, knee, meander, modulation, morph, morpheme, morphemic analysis, morphemics, morphology, morphophonemics, nook, oxbow, paradigm, pitch, pitch accent, point, prefix, prefixation, proclitic, pronunciation, quoin, radical, reflection, root, speech tune, stem, suffix, suffixation, suprasegmental, sweep, swerve, theme, timbre, tonality, tone, tone of voice, turn, turning, veer, vertex, word-formation, zag, zig, zigzag
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |