orthography

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English ortographie, from Anglo-Norman ortografie, Middle French orthographie, and their source, Latin orthographia, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek ὀρθογραφία (orthographía), from ὀρθός (orthós, “correct”) and γράφω (gráphō, “write”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈθɒɡ.ɹə.fi/
• (US) enPR: ôrthäʹgrəfē, IPA^(key): /ɔɹˈθɑɡ.ɹə.fi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: or‧thog‧ra‧phy
• Rhymes: -ɒɡɹəfi

Noun

orthography (countable and uncountable, plural orthographies)

1. (linguistics) The study of correct spelling according to established usage.
2. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
3. Synonym of spelling: the specific method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/ijl/ecy010, page 491:

     In the colonial era there were two major competing orthographies for rendering words from Indian languages, the ‘Jones system,’ based on the spelling in the original language and requiring a substantial application of diacritics, and the ‘Gilchrist system,’ based on pronunciation and requiring less diacritics.

4. (architecture) Orthographic projection; especially its use to draw an elevation, vertical projection etc. of a building.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:orthography.

Synonyms

• (study of representing sound in writing): orthoepy (inexact)

Coordinate terms

• (study of representing sound in writing): orthoepy

Derived terms

• orthographer
• orthographic
• orthographical
• orthographically
• orthographist
• orthographize

 

Translations

study of correct spelling

• Albanian: ortografi (sq) f
• Arabic: عِلْم الْإِمْلَاء‎ m (ʿilm al-ʾimlāʾ), هِجَاء‎ m (hijāʾ), تَهْجِئَة‎ f (tahjiʾa), إِمْلَاء‎ m (ʾimlāʾ)
• Armenian: ուղղագրություն (hy) (ułłagrutʿyun)
• Azerbaijani: orfoqrafiya (az), imla
• Belarusian: пра́вапіс m (právapis), арфагра́фія f (arfahráfija)
• Bengali: লিখনবিধি (likhônbidhi)
• Bulgarian: правопи́с (bg) m (pravopís), ортогра́фия (bg) f (ortográfija)
• Burmese: စာလုံးပေါင်းသတ်ပုံ (my) (calum:paung:satpum)
• Catalan: ortografia (ca) f
• Cebuano: ortograpiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 正字法 (zh) (zhèngzìfǎ), 拼字 (zh) (pīnzì), 拼寫法 (zh), 拼写法 (zh) (pīnxiěfǎ), 正詞法, 正词法 (zhèngcífǎ), 拼寫 (zh), 拼写 (zh) (pīnxiě), 寫法 (zh), 写法 (zh) (xiěfǎ), 正字學, 正字学 (zhèngzìxué)

• Czech: pravopis (cs) m
• Danish: ortografi c, retskrivning c
• Dutch: spelling (nl) f
• Estonian: ortograafia
• Faroese: rættskriving f
• Finnish: ortografia (fi), oikeinkirjoitusoppi
• French: orthographe (fr) f
• Galician: ortografía (gl) f
• Georgian: მართლწერა (martlc̣era), ორთოგრაფია (ortograpia)
• German: Orthografie (de) f, Rechtschreibung (de) f
• Greek: ορθογραφία (el) f (orthografía)
• Hebrew: אוֹרתוֹגְרָפִיָה‎ f (ortográfya)
• Hindi: इमला (hi) m (imlā), वर्तनी (hi) f (vartanī), हिज्जे (hi) m (hijje)
• Hungarian: helyesírás (hu)
• Icelandic: réttritun (is) f
• Indonesian: ortografi (id)
• Interlingua: orthographia (ia)
• Irish: ortagrafaíocht f
• Japanese: 正字法 (せいじほう, seijihō), 綴り (つづり, tsuzuri), 正書法 (ja) (せいしよほう, seishohō), オーソグラフィー (ōsogurafī), スペリング (superingu), スペル (superu), 綴り字 (つづりじ, tsuzuriji)
• Kazakh: орфография (orfografïya), емле (emle)
• Khmer: អក្ខរាវិរុទ្ធ (ʼakkhaʼraavirut)
• Korean: 맞춤법 (ko) (matchumbeop), 철자법(綴字法) (ko) (cheoljabeop)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: imla (ku), vekît (ku)

• Kyrgyz: орфография (orfografiya)
• Lao: ອັກຂະລະວິທີ (ʼak kha la wi thī)
• Latvian: ortogrāfija f, pareizrakstība f
• Lithuanian: ortografija f
• Macedonian: правопис m (pravopis), ортографија f (ortografija)
• Malay: ejaan (ms), ortografi, eja
• Middle English: ortographie
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: зөв бичих зүй (zöv bichikh züi)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ortografi (no) m, rettskriving (no) m or f, rettskrivning m or f

  Nynorsk: ortografi m, rettskriving f

• Pashto: املا‎ (ps) f (emlã), ليکدود‎ m (likdód)
• Persian: املا‎ (fa) (emlâ)
• Polish: ortografia (pl) f, pisownia (pl) f
• Portuguese: ortografia (pt) f
• Romanian: ortografie (ro) f
• Russian: орфогра́фия (ru) f (orfográfija), правописа́ние (ru) n (pravopisánije), спе́ллинг m (spɛ́lling) (of English)
• Scottish Gaelic: litreachadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пра̏вопӣс m, ортогра̀фија f

  Roman: prȁvopīs (sh) m, ortogràfija (sh) f

• Slovak: pravopis m
• Slovene: pravopís (sl)
• Spanish: ortografía (es) f
• Swahili: tahajia, otografia
• Swedish: rättstavning (sv) c, ortografi (sv) c
• Tagalog: palabaybayan, palatitikan, ortograpiya
• Tajik: имло (imlo)
• Thai: อักขรวิธี (th) (àk-kà-rà-wí-tii)
• Turkish: ortografi, yazım (tr), imla (tr)
• Turkmen: orfografiýa
• Ukrainian: право́пис (uk) m (pravópys), орфогра́фія (uk) f (orfohráfija)
• Urdu: املا‎ (ur) m (imlā)
• Uyghur: ئىملا‎ (imla), ئورفوگرافىيە‎ (orfografiye)
• Uzbek: orfografiya (uz), imlo (uz)
• Vietnamese: chính tả (vi), phép chính tả
• Yiddish: אָרטאָגראַפֿיע‎ f (ortografye)
• Yoruba: àkọtọ́

aspect of language study

• Arabic: إِمْلَاء‎ m (ʾimlāʾ)
• Armenian: ուղղագրություն (hy) (ułłagrutʿyun)
• Catalan: ortografia (ca) f
• Cebuano: ortograpiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拼字 (zh) (pīnzì), 拼寫法 (zh), 拼写法 (zh) (pīnxiěfǎ)

• Danish: ortografi c, retskrivning c
• Dutch: spelling (nl) f
• Finnish: ortografia (fi), oikeinkirjoitusoppi
• French: orthographe (fr) f
• Galician: ortografía (gl) f
• Georgian: მართლწერა (martlc̣era), ორთოგრაფია (ortograpia)
• German: Rechtschreibkunde f
• Greek: ορθογραφία (el) f (orthografía)
• Irish: ortagrafaíocht f

• Latvian: ortogrāfija f, pareizrakstība f
• Macedonian: правопис m (pravopis), ортографија f (ortografija)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ortografi (no) m, rettskriving (no) m or f, rettskrivning m or f

  Nynorsk: ortografi m, rettskriving f

• Polish: ortografia (pl) f
• Portuguese: ortografia (pt) f
• Russian: орфогра́фия (ru) f (orfográfija), правописа́ние (ru) n (pravopisánije), спе́ллинг m (spɛ́lling) (of English)
• Scottish Gaelic: litreachadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пра̏вопӣс m, ортогра̀фија f

  Roman: prȁvopīs (sh) m, ortogràfija (sh) f

• Spanish: ortografía (es) f
• Swedish: ortografi (sv) c

method of representing a language by written symbols

• Albanian: drejtshkrim (sq) m
• Armenian: ուղղագրություն (hy) (ułłagrutʿyun)
• Burmese: ရေးထုံး (my) (re:htum:), စာလုံးပေါင်း (my) (calum:paung:), အသတ် (my) (a.sat)
• Catalan: ortografia (ca) f
• Cebuano: ortograpiya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 正寫法, 正写法 (zhèngxiěfǎ)

• Danish: ortografi c, retskrivning c
• Dutch: spelling (nl) f
• Finnish: oikeinkirjoitus (fi), oikeinkirjoitusjärjestelmä
• French: orthographe (fr) f
• Galician: ortografía (gl) f
• Georgian: ორთოგრაფია (ortograpia), მართლწერა (martlc̣era)

• Irish: ortagrafaíocht f
• Korean: 표기법(表記法) (pyogibeop)
• Latvian: ortogrāfija
• Macedonian: правопис m (pravopis), ортографија f (ortografija)
• Polish: ortografia (pl) f
• Portuguese: ortografia (pt) f
• Russian: орфогра́фия (ru) f (orfográfija)
• Scottish Gaelic: litreachadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пра̏вопӣс m, ортогра̀фија f

  Roman: prȁvopīs (sh) m, ortogràfija (sh) f

• Spanish: ortografía (es) f
• Thai: อักขรวิธี (th) (àk-kà-rà-wí-tii)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} ortografio

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} orthographia (ia)

Verb

orthography (third-person singular simple present orthographies, present participle orthographying, simple past and past participle orthographied)

1. (transitive) To write according to established usage.