Which term describes a morpheme that is not dependent on other words and carries meaning?

The term that describes a morpheme that is not dependent on other words and can stand alone while still carrying meaning is indeed a free lexical morpheme. Free lexical morphemes are often content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that can exist independently within a language. For example, the word "cat" is a free lexical morpheme; it holds meaning on its own without requiring any additional morphemes.

In contrast, bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes to convey meaning, and typically include prefixes and suffixes. An affix is a specific type of bound morpheme that can be either a prefix or a suffix, which also cannot stand alone. Root morphemes, while they can sometimes be free morphemes, often refer to the base form of a word before any affixes are added. However, in this context, the emphasis is on the ability of a morpheme to stand alone and convey meaning, which specifically aligns with the definition of a free lexical morpheme.