inflection

noun

1. (uncountable)The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

   “In English, word order often does the work that inflection did in Latin.”

2. (countable)The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

   “The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.”

3. (countable)The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

   “English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.”

4. (countable)The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby terms take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.

   “Recite every inflection for each of these words.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A change in pitch or tone of voice.
6. (countable, uncountable)A change in curvature from concave to convex or from convex to concave.
7. (countable, uncountable)A turning away from a straight course.

   “inflection from the rules”

8. (countable, uncountable)Diffraction.