cacography

American  

[kuh-kog-ruh-fee] / kəˈkɒg rə fi /

noun

1. bad handwriting; poor penmanship.

2. incorrect spelling.

---

cacography British  

/ ˌkækəˈɡræfɪk, kæˈkɒɡrəfɪ /

noun

1. bad handwriting Compare calligraphy

2. incorrect spelling Compare orthography

---

Other Word Forms

• cacographer noun
• cacographic adjective
• cacographical adjective

Etymology

Origin of cacography

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

Example Sentences

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

And yet, upon careful examination we find a method, a system, in Underhill's orthography, or rather in his cacography.

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Earle, Alice Morse

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

From Claverhouse by Morris, Mowbray

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

He blows off his steam with such an eagerness that he forgets for a time, or nearly forgets, his cacography.

From Thackeray by Trollope, Anthony