word stem; stem
Linguistics term for the non-inflecting part of a word to which inflectional endings are attached.
日本語の動詞「食べる」の語幹は「食べ」です。
The stem of the Japanese verb 'taberu' is 'tabe'.
語幹に活用語尾が付いて単語が変化します。
Words change by attaching inflectional endings to the stem.
語尾 is the inflectional ending that changes with conjugation, while 語幹 is the unchanging stem that remains after removing it.
thematic vowel; thematic
Compound of 語 (word) and 幹 (trunk, stem). A straightforward calque of the Western linguistic concept 'word stem'.