heterographic

English

WOTD – 2 October 2009

Etymology

From heterography.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛt.ə.ɹəʊˈɡɹæf.ik/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛt.ə.ɹoʊˈɡɹæf.ik/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

heterographic (not comparable)

1. Misspelled; of or pertaining to an incorrect spelling or a spelling that differs from accepted standards.
2. (linguistics) Of a writing system in which a particular symbol represents more than one possible sound.

   In English. many letters are heterographic.

   • 2000, Po-Ching Yip, The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey, page 16:

     Quite often, more than one heterographic monosyllable […] can represent the same mononym in particular contexts if they are semantically indifferentiable.

   • 2008, Elena L. Grigorenko, Adam J. Naples, Single-word Reading: Behavioral and Biological Perspectives, page 140:

     English has few such heterophonic homographs, hence much of the work in English (and French) examining orthography-phonology consistency effects at the whole-word level has focused on heterographic homophones.

Synonyms

• (misspelled): misspelled, misspelt

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “of a writing system”): homographic

Related terms

• heterography

Translations

misspelled; of or pertaining to an incorrect spelling

linguistics: of a writing system in which a particular symbol represents more than one possible sound

• French: hétérographique