inflector
/ɪnˈflɛktər/
noun
- A device or part that changes the direction or shape of something, such as a beam of light or a stream of air.
- Engineers designed a new inflector for the ventilation system to improve airflow.
- The telescope uses an inflector to bend the light path toward the eyepiece.
- The lamp's inflector directs the light downward onto the desk.
- In linguistics, a word or affix that shows grammatical relationships by changing form (e.g., tense, number, case).
- Linguists study how each language uses inflectors to convey meaning.
- The plural inflector -s changes 'cat' to 'cats'.
- In English, the suffix -ed is an inflector that marks past tense.