grapheme
- noun
- /ˈɡræfiːm/
- Specialized
:
grafema
- In English, the letter 'c' is a grapheme that can represent different sounds, such as in 'cat' and 'city'.
- grapheme-phoneme
- grapheme instruction
- grapheme correspondence
Examples
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The phonological coding of speech sounds is built in and automatic, but the grapheme-to-phoneme translation must be learned through reading instruction.
Academic text (2007) -
All words can be decoded using letter-sound correspondence or grapheme-phoneme rules.
Academic text (2011) -
The average difference between the phoneme and grapheme instruction was 10%.
Academic text (2009) -
Moving from a focus on phoneme to grapheme correspondence to larger units is supported by a number of authorities.
Academic text (2015) -
A central substrate of reading is grapheme/phoneme association.
Academic text (2011) -
Reading instruction that simply focuses on phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence does not support the more sophisticated levels of word analysis used by advanced readers.
Academic text (2015) -
The standard writing system of English is alphabetic, meaning that a grapheme can be represented by a corresponding phoneme(s).
Academic text (2013) -
To spell the word 'dog', you need to know the graphemes 'd', 'o', and 'g'.
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Children learn to associate sounds with graphemes during their early reading lessons.
Synonyms
972
1.0
A written or printed mark that stands for a sound in an alphabet
136
3.2
A written sign such as a letter or number
8
1.0
A written sign that stands for a sound in a language, like A or B
2
7.5
A single letter, number, or symbol used in writing and on computers
A written sign that stands for a sound, word, or idea
A written mark, like a letter, that stands for a sound or idea
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word grapheme comes from the Greek root graph- meaning 'write' and the ending -eme meaning a small 'unit'. So a grapheme is the smallest written 'unit', like a letter or character that stands for a sound or meaning.