👉 In linguistics, a peripatoid is a type of word that has an indefinite number of meanings. This means that if you change one part of a word, it can have any meaning that doesn't exist in the original word. For example, "play" could mean anything from "to be happy" to "to play with others". Peripatoid words are often used in language arts and linguistics courses because they provide an interesting way to teach students about word meaning and its