How many morphemes are in the word "unhealthiest"?

The word "unhealthiest" can be broken down into morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units of language. In this case, "unhealthiest" consists of three distinct morphemes:

1. The prefix "un-" which signifies negation (not).

2. The root word "health," which is the core meaning of the term.

3. The suffix "-iest," a superlative form indicating that something has the highest degree of health-related characteristics.

When you analyze "unhealthiest," you can see that the combination of these three morphemes creates a meaningful word that conveys the idea of being the least healthy. Therefore, the total count of morphemes in "unhealthiest" is indeed 3.

The answer indicating 4 would have been correct only if there was another distinct morpheme present, but in "unhealthiest," there are only the three noted.