grapheme

American  

[graf-eem] / ˈgræf im /

noun

Linguistics.

1. a minimal unit of a writing system.

2. 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.

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grapheme British  

/ ˈɡræfiːm /

noun

1. 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

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Other Word Forms

• graphemically adverb

Etymology

Origin of grapheme

First recorded in 1935–40; graph- + -eme

Explanation

One unit of a writing system is called a grapheme. In English, the letter t is a grapheme, and so is the letter combination ch. The key to understanding graphemes is knowing that they represent specific individual sounds in a language. Often, a grapheme is simply a letter, but it can also be a pair of letters like oo or th, or longer chains like igh or ough. The sounds you say out loud when you pronounce these graphemes are known as phonemes. The word grapheme was coined in 1937 by a linguistics professor, from graph, "letter."

Example Sentences

“In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest unit of the writing system of any given language.”

From The New Yorker • Dec. 31, 2016

The consensus is that the dense connections in the synesthetes are fibers transgressing the boundary between adjacent grapheme and color areas.

From Scientific American • Oct. 20, 2015