pentagraph

English

Alternative forms

• pantograph (meaning 1)

Noun

pentagraph (plural pentagraphs)

Illustration of a pentagraph.

1. A device used in surveying composed of four flat, straight brass rules, two of which are long and are connected by a double pivot at the end to create a V shape, and two of which are short and joined by a double pivot to create another V shape pointed away from the first, with the other ends of the short rules connected at the halfway mark of the long rules, so that the entire figure creates a parallelogram.
2. (linguistics) A specific sequence of five letters, especially one used collectively to represent a single phoneme.
3. (computing) A five-character sequence used to enter a single conceptual character.

Related terms

• digraph
• trigraph
• tetragraph
• hexagraph
• heptagraph
• octagraph
• monophthong
• diphthong
• triphthong
• ligature