orthographic
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- nonorthographic adjective
- nonorthographical adjective
- nonorthographically adverb
- orthographically adverb
- unorthographical adjective
- unorthographically adverb
Etymology
Origin of orthographic
First recorded in 1660–70; orthograph(y) + -ic
Explanation
Something related to orthography — the conventional spellings of a language — can be described as orthographic. Orthographic comes from the Greek roots ortho, meaning correct, and graphos, meaning writing. You have made several orthographic errors if you write "alot of peeple came two the skool." The spelling of "a lot," "people," "to," and "school" are all incorrect. If you tend to spell this way, it's possible that you have an orthographic processing problem, or trouble visualizing the correct patterns for spelling words, which can also affect how well you can read. English has so many odd spellings that almost everyone makes the occasional orthographic mistake.
Vocabulary lists containing orthographic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Publishers wanted an orthographic illustration, a drawing of the front, sides and top of the tree, to give readers an undistorted view of a Ceiba pentandra Van Pelt first measured in 1997.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023
In attempting to devise an alphabetic system with which to transliterate Chinese, Mr. Zhou was continuing an orthographic tradition that went back at least to the 16th century.
From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2017
Their ambitions of orthographic engineering are likely to be frustrated.
From Time • Feb. 17, 2016
Even the Czech Republic’s ambassador to the United States, whose country’s connection to Chechnya is purely orthographic, felt compelled to note that the Czech Republic and Chechnya are “two very different entities.”
From Slate • Apr. 22, 2013
In other words, it is the orthographic design whereon the heights and lengths are expressed.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
