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compounds may be made of two or more components. However, a blend may have a meaning independent of its components' meanings (e.g., motel <-- motor + hotel), while in a clipped compound the components already serve the function of producing a compound meaning (for instance, pulmotor <-- pulmonary + motor). In addition, a clipped compound may drop one component completely: hard instead of hard labor, or mother for motherfucker (a process called ellipsis). Laurie Bauer suggests the following ad hoc distinction for English: If the word has compound stress, it is a clipped compound; if it has single-word stress, it is a blend.

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