cacography

American  

[kuh-kog-ruh-fee] / kəˈkɒg rə fi /

noun

1. bad handwriting; poor penmanship.

2. incorrect spelling.

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cacography British  

/ ˌkækəˈɡræfɪk, kæˈkɒɡrəfɪ /

noun

1. bad handwriting Compare calligraphy

2. incorrect spelling Compare orthography

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Other Word Forms

• cacographer noun
• cacographic adjective
• cacographical adjective

Etymology

Origin of cacography

First recorded in 1570–80; caco- + -graphy

Example Sentences

Some of Artemus Ward's effects were produced, by cacography or bad spelling, but there was genius in the wildly erratic way in which he handled even this rather low order of humor.

From Initial Studies in American Letters by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

Some of Artemus Ward's effects were produced by cacography or bad spelling, but there was genius in the wildly erratic way in which he handled even this rather low order of humor.

From Brief History of English and American Literature by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

A letter more or less in a name was of no account in the cacography of those times.

From Claverhouse by Morris, Mowbray

I am willing to lay the blame of these errata on my own cacography, rather than on the printer's back.

From Notes and Queries, Number 185, May 14, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Bell, George

If he owed to Smollett's Humphrey Clinker the form of his Up the Rhine, he has equalled Smollett in the narrative, in the variety of character, and in the admirable cacography of Martha Penny.

From English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Coppee, Henry