Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.
- n. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
- n. A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The art or practice of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; the way in which words are customarily written; spelling: as, the orthography of a word.
- n. In the following passage it is used erroneously, in burlesque:
- n. The branch of language-study which treats of the nature and properties of letters, and of the art of writing words correctly.
- n. In musical notation, the art or practice of representing tones and effects by the proper characters, according to accepted usage.
- n. In draftsmanship, a geometrical representation of an elevation or section of a building; a sectional view of a fortress or the like.
Wiktionary
- n. The study of correct spelling according to established usage.
- n. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
- n. Spelling; the method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols.
- n. architecture Orthographic projection; especially its use to draw an elevation, vertical projection etc. of a building.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The art or practice of writing words with the proper letters, according to standard usage; conventionally correct spelling; also, mode of spelling.
- n. The part of grammar which treats of the letters, and of the art of spelling words correctly.
- n. A drawing in correct projection, especially an elevation or a vertical section.
- n. The method of spelling the words of a particular language; the system of symbols used for writing a language.
- n. The branch of linguistics concerned with how languages are written.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman ortografie, Middle French ortografie, ortographie, and their source, Latin orthographia, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek ὀρθογραφία, from ὀρθός (orthos, "correct") and γράφω (gráphō, "write"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Surely, even basic orthography is within your grasp? billy”
Justin Raimondo vs. Christopher Hitchens on al-Jazeera « Antiwar.com Blog
“And English orthography is hardly beholden to pronunciation (tho it mite be nice if it were).”
“Is there some subtle complication in Hawaiian orthography or dialectology that I'm missing?”
“Oh, and just to mess up the Google counts, in Arabic orthography those forms are all indistinguishable from verbal nouns in the accusative...”
“Since the vulgar dialects of the people had neither alphabet nor orthography, he chalked the Latin words for "Penance, Solitude, and Silence," on a large flat stone, and wrote them again below in ancient English, hoping, in spite of his unacknowledged yearning for someone to talk to, that the old man would understand and leave him to his lonely Lenten vigil.”
“[9] Condé, and the writers who have followed him, constantly speak of the Beni-Modhar as Egyptian -- an error owing to the neglect or omission of the point which in Arabic orthography distinguishes _Modhar_ from _Missr_, (Egypt.)”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844
“Master of Arts. According to the easy orthography of that time (if the word orthography may be applied to a practice by virtue of which every man spelled as seemed right in his own eyes), Lyly's name is found in at least six forms: Lilye, Lylie, Lilly, Lyllie, Lyly, and Lylly.”
“The Slavonic combination of consonants sl was changed in Greek orthography into stl, sthl, or skl.”
“Here is Lewis's letter (corrected in orthography).”
“This much I have thought good to say in respect of that entire revolution in English orthography, which some rash innovators have proposed.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orthography’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 42 more...
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dewORdie
Wordsmithing, linguistics, logic, and grammar
polyagglutination, morphosyntactic, textuality, tautology, synaloepha, logodaedaly, logogogue, largiloquent, sockdolager, phonotactics, asemic writing, philology and 5 more...
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Gram-Lang
pleonastic, synecdoche, solecism, virgule, fricative, altiloquent, chrestomathy, orthography, mondegreen, polysemy, zeugma, Syllepsis and 9 more...
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graphism
of or related to drawing—forms, tools, techniques, processes, practices, etc.
limn, vectorial, limned, synecdoche, adumbrate, lapis, colophon, grapheme, isogloss, sciagraphy, palimpsest, homunculus and 18 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 475 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
opacity, opaline, olfactory, orthoepy, orthoepy, oleaginous, obloquy, oasitic, obtrude, orthotic, overweening, ostinato and 125 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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andrew.simone's Words
elan, prestidigitation, flummoxed, autochthonous, missive, hoi polloi, schadenfreude, frou-frou, oolong, burleseque, ontic, etymology and 165 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Words I had to look up, or I liked, from Robert Louis Stevenson's travelogue 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes'.
pediment, drugget, raiment, scurrilous, stripling, distaff, calumniate, valise, stolid, appurtenance, spencer, vaticination and 42 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for orthography.
leaden I stumbled across a video of David Wolman promoting his book Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling at Google (from March 26, 2009): “Righting the Mother Tongue tells the cockamamie story of English spelling. When did ghost acquire its silent 'h'? Will cyberspace kill the one in rhubarb? And was it really rocket scientists who invented spell-check?”
I don’t know if the book is any good, but I think it likely someone here will enjoy the talk. Oct 6, 2012