combining form

1. 1.

   a bound form used only in compounds

   “`hemato-' is a combining form in words like `hematology'”

   Broaderbound morpheme

Questions about combining form

What does combining form mean?

combining form means "a bound form used only in compounds".

Is combining form a common word?

combining form is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.