Word stem

Part of a word responsible for its lexical meaning

In linguistics, a word stem is a word part responsible for a word's lexical meaning. The term is used with slightly different meanings depending on the morphology of the language in question. For instance, in Athabaskan linguistics, a verb stem is a root that cannot appear on its own and that carries the tone of the word.

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA. More on occurri.