monikkomuotona

Monikkomuotona is a Finnish linguistic term used to refer to a word's form when it is inflected for more than one referent. The term literally means "in the form of the plural" and is used mainly in grammar descriptions, dictionaries and educational materials to indicate the plural variant of a lemma.

In Finnish grammar, nouns and other parts of speech have singular and plural forms. Monikkomuotona denotes the plural form that a word takes in ordinary usage or in declension tables. It is a way to label the plural column or entry for a given word in explanations or dictionaries. For example, the singular koira has the monikkomuotona koirat in plural; talo becomes talot; lapsi becomes lapset. The exact plural form depends on the word's type and its stem changes; discussing monikkomuotona helps learners see the link between the base lemma and its plural.

Relation and distinction: The term is related to yksikkömuoto (singular form), monikko (plural) and to broader concepts of taivutus (inflection) and morfologia. It is not a separate grammatical category by itself, but a label used when describing plural forms in reference works and grammar guidance.

See also: Finnish grammar, monikko, yksikkömuoto, taivutus, morfologia.