The smallest unit of meaning in a language is:

• A. Morpheme
• B. Phoneme
• C. Lexeme
• D. Syllable

Answer: (A)

The smallest unit of meaning in a language is a morpheme. A morpheme carries semantic content or grammatical function and can be a whole word or a prefix/suffix that changes meaning or part of speech. For example, in unhappiness there are three morphemes: un- (a prefix meaning not), happy (a root with meaning), and -ness (a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun). Phonemes are the individual sounds that distinguish words, not meanings; syllables are pronunciation units; and a lexeme is a word form or dictionary entry, not the smallest unit of meaning. So morpheme is the correct concept.