Conversion is a process that puts an existing word of one class into another class. This happens more frequently between nouns and verbs. In the phrase, to butter the bread, butter is converted from a noun into a verb. Look in take a look is a noun converted from a verb. Some verbs are from adjectives. Empty as a verb is converted from adjective, so is open. Less common types of conversion can yield a noun from an adjective (e.g. the poor, a gay) and even a verb from a preposition (e.g. to up the price).

　 Conversion is usually found in words containing one morpheme. Some compounds are also converted. In the following two sentences, the verb is converted from noun.

　　The police machineguned the gang.
　　He likes to grandstand.

　 Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one or more syllables. Clipped words are initially used in spoken English on informal occasions. Some clipped words become widely accepted, and are used even in formal styles. Bus (from omnibus), vet (from veterinarian), gym (from gymnasium), fridge (from refrigerator), and fax (from facsimile) are good examples.

　 Blending is a process that creates new words by putting together non-morphemic parts of existing words. Well-known examples are smog (smoke and fog), brunch (a meal replacing breakfast and lunch), infotech (information technology), aerobicise (aerobics and exercise), and motel (motor and hotel).

　 Some words are formed by a process that is partly blending and partly compounding. Workaholic, medicare and guesstimate are formed in such a way. They are combination of a whole word with part of another.

　 Backformation is a process that creates a new word by dropping a real or supposed suffix. Edit was originally backformed from editor, and peddle from peddler. This way of word formation still continues to produce new words. Liaise was recently backformed from liaison. Attrit was formed from attrition by U.S. military officials during the Gulf War to refer to the decimation of Iraq troops.

　 Acronyms and abbreviations are formed by putting together the initial letters of some or all words in a phrase or title. The difference between the two is that the former can be read as a word, while the latter cannot. (Abbreviations are read letter by letter.) This type of word formation is common in names of organizations and scientific terminology. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. UNESCO is a branch of United Nations, which is abbreviated as U.N.

　 Some acronyms as scientific terminology are used as a lexical item. Speakers may not know that they were originally formed as an acronym. Radar (radio detecting and ranging), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) and laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) are all such words. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and BASIC (beginner’s all-purpose symbolic instruction code) are recent acronyms which tend to be accepted as English words.

　 Eponyms are words that originate from proper names of individuals or places. Sandwich is a common noun originating from the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who put his food between two slices of bread so that he could eat while gambling. Many scientific terms such as watt, curie, and Fahrenheit are eponyms.

　 Coinage is a process of inventing words not based on existing morphemes. This way of word formation is especially common in cases where industry requires a word for a new product. Kodak, Coca-cola, Orlon and Dacron are examples of coined words.