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grapheme

[graf-eem]

noun Linguistics.

a minimal unit of a writing system.

a unit of a writing system consisting of all the written symbols or sequences of written symbols that are used to represent a single phoneme.

Origin:
1935–40; graph- + -eme

Related forms

gra·phe·mi·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Grapheme is always a great word to know.

So is language death. Does it mean:

the complete displacement of one language by another in a population of speakers

to differ in a way that can serve to distinguish meanings: The sounds (p) and (b) contrast in the words ?pin? and ?bin?

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Collins

World English Dictionary

grapheme (ˈɡræfiːm)

—n
	linguistics one of a set of orthographic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) in a given language that serve to distinguish one word from another and usually correspond to or represent phonemes, e.g. the f in fun, the ph in phantom, and the gh in laugh

[C20: from Greek graphēma a letter]

gra'phemically

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Related Words

allograph graph-

graph-

Quote Of The Day

"Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound 'em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!"

-Henry Seidel Canby

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grapheme

graph·eme