n. in linguistics, any of several different speech sounds or written forms that are used to represent the same
morpheme. For example, the [s] sound at the end of
cats and the [z] sound at the end of
dogs represent the same noun-plural morpheme and are therefore allomorphs. Similarly, in writing, the
-t at the end of
burnt and the
-ed at the end of
turned are allomorphs representing the same past-tense morpheme.
—allomorphic adj.