Specialist dictionary

Spelling

Orthography, spelling conventions, letter patterns, doubling, endings and common spelling terminology.

Core vocabulary

90 featured terms

The database can contain more terms than shown here; this page prioritises the strongest mappings.

Approach patternnoun

the path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport; "the traffic patterns around O'Hare are very crowded"; "the…

Capitalnoun

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once k…

Capital letternoun

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once k…

Capitalisationnoun

the sale of capital stock

Capitalizationnoun

the sale of capital stock

Characternoun

a written symbol that is used to represent speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters"

Consonantnoun

a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken consonant

Digramnoun

two successive letters (especially two letters used to represent a single sound: ‘sh’ in ‘shoe’)

Digraphnoun

two successive letters (especially two letters used to represent a single sound: ‘sh’ in ‘shoe’)

Doubleverb

do double duty; serve two purposes or have two functions; "She doubles as his wife and secretary"

graphnoun

a written symbol that is used to represent speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters"

Graphemenoun

a written symbol that is used to represent speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters"

Graphic symbolnoun

a written symbol that is used to represent speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters"

Kick assverb

be excellent or outstanding; "I'm enjoying this. I know. This rules!" - How I Met Your Mother! - The Duel (2005); "It rocks, but it can get a li…

Letternoun

a written message addressed to a person or organization; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor"

Majusculenoun

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once k…

Missivenoun

a written message addressed to a person or organization; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor"

Muteadjective

expressed without speech; "a mute appeal"; "a silent curse"; "best grief is tongueless" - Emily Dickinson; "the words stopped at her lips unsoun…

Orthographicadjective

of or relating to or expressed in orthography

Orthographynoun

a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols

Patternnoun

the path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport; "the traffic patterns around O'Hare are very crowded"; "the…

Rockverb

be excellent or outstanding; "I'm enjoying this. I know. This rules!" - How I Met Your Mother! - The Duel (2005); "It rocks, but it can get a li…

Ruleverb

be excellent or outstanding; "I'm enjoying this. I know. This rules!" - How I Met Your Mother! - The Duel (2005); "It rocks, but it can get a li…

Silentadjective

expressed without speech; "a mute appeal"; "a silent curse"; "best grief is tongueless" - Emily Dickinson; "the words stopped at her lips unsoun…

Slayverb

be excellent or outstanding; "I'm enjoying this. I know. This rules!" - How I Met Your Mother! - The Duel (2005); "It rocks, but it can get a li…

Spellingnoun

forming words with letters according to the principles underlying accepted usage

Stressnoun

(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense; "he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension"; "stress is a vasoconstrictor"

Syllablenoun

a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme; "the word ‘pocket’ has two syllables"

Tensenessnoun

(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense; "he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension"; "stress is a vasoconstrictor"

Tensionnoun

(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense; "he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension"; "stress is a vasoconstrictor"

Tonguelessadjective

expressed without speech; "a mute appeal"; "a silent curse"; "best grief is tongueless" - Emily Dickinson; "the words stopped at her lips unsoun…

Traffic patternnoun

the path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport; "the traffic patterns around O'Hare are very crowded"; "the…

Unspokenadjective

expressed without speech; "a mute appeal"; "a silent curse"; "best grief is tongueless" - Emily Dickinson; "the words stopped at her lips unsoun…

Upper-case letternoun

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once k…

Uppercasenoun

one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once k…

Vowelnoun

a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken vowel

Wordlessadjective

expressed without speech; "a mute appeal"; "a silent curse"; "best grief is tongueless" - Emily Dickinson; "the words stopped at her lips unsoun…

Writing systemnoun

a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols

ABCnoun

a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

ABC'snoun

a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

ABCsnoun

a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

Alphabetnoun

a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

Doublingnoun

increase by a factor of two; "doubling with a computer took no time at all"

Homophonenoun

two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear)

Allographnoun

a variant form of a grapheme, as ‘m’ or ‘M’ or a handwritten version of that grapheme

Antepenultnoun

the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end

Antepenultimanoun

the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end

Antepenultimatenoun

the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end

Asterisknoun

a star-shaped character * used in printing

Blanknoun

a blank character used to separate successive words in writing or printing; "he said the space is the most important character in the alphabet"

Boustrophedonnoun

an ancient writing system: having alternate lines written in opposite directions; literally ‘as the ox ploughs’

Breaking pointnoun

(psychology) stress at which a person breaks down or a situation becomes crucial

Daggernoun

a character used in printing to indicate a second cross reference or footnote when the asterisk has already been used

Diesisnoun

a character used in printing to indicate a third cross reference or footnote after the asterisk and the dagger have been used

Encyclicalnoun

a letter from the pope sent to all Roman Catholic bishops throughout the world

Epistlenoun

a specially long, formal letter

Hieroglyphnoun

a writing system using picture symbols; used in ancient Egypt

Hieroglyphicnoun

a writing system using picture symbols; used in ancient Egypt

Ideogramnoun

a graphic character that indicates the meaning of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it; "Chinese characters are ideograms"

Ideographnoun

a graphic character that indicates the meaning of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it; "Chinese characters are ideograms"

Ideographynoun

the use of ideograms in writing

Inferiornoun

a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character

Invitationnoun

a request (spoken or written) to participate or be present or take part in something; "an invitation to lunch"; "she threw the invitation away"

Letternoun

the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters"

Ligaturenoun

character consisting of two or more letters combined into one

Minusculenoun

the characters that were once kept in bottom half of a compositor's type case

Misspellingnoun

a spelling that is incorrect

Obelisknoun

a character used in printing to indicate a second cross reference or footnote when the asterisk has already been used

Overcapitalisationnoun

(business) too much capitalization (the sale of more stock than the business warrants)

Overcapitalizationnoun

(business) too much capitalization (the sale of more stock than the business warrants)

Pastoralnoun

a letter from a pastor to the congregation

Penultnoun

the next to last syllable in a word

Penultimanoun

the next to last syllable in a word

Penultimatenoun

the next to last syllable in a word

Pictographnoun

a graphic character used in picture writing

Radicalnoun

a character conveying the lexical meaning of a logogram

Reduplicationnoun

the syllable added in a reduplicated word form

Runenoun

any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages; "each rune had its own magical sign…

Scriptnoun

a particular orthography or writing system

Spacenoun

a blank character used to separate successive words in writing or printing; "he said the space is the most important character in the alphabet"

Starnoun

a star-shaped character * used in printing

Stenographnoun

a shorthand character

Subscriptnoun

a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character

Superiornoun

a character or symbol set or printed or written above and immediately to one side of another character

Superscriptnoun

a character or symbol set or printed or written above and immediately to one side of another character

Typenoun

printed characters; "small type is hard to read"

Ultimanoun

the last syllable in a word

Yipsnoun

nervous tension that causes an athlete to fail (especially causes golfers to miss short putts); "to avoid the yips, he changed his style of putt…

Armeniannoun

a writing system having an alphabet of 38 letters in which the Armenian language is written

Inarticulateadjective

without or deprived of the use of speech or words; "inarticulate beasts"; "remained stupidly inarticulate and saying something noncommittal"; "i…