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Glite Dictionary
dittography

dittography

9.9
An accidental repeated letter, word, or phrase in writing
  • noun
  • /ˌdɪtəˈɡrɑfi/
  • Specialized
translation icon : dittografía
  • The writer checked his manuscript for dittography to ensure no words were accidentally repeated.

Examples

  • Dittography is the converse, the duplication of a single item.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Here, we cannot expect a single explanatory principle of the sort that might be available in the case of accidental changes such as haplography or dittography.

    Academic text (2001)

  • This is a nice example, since it may enable us to explain phenomena like dittography, haplography, homoeoteleuton, and homoearcton by reference to a single type of cognitive/motor mechanism instead of in the somewhat piecemeal way provided in textual criticism.

    Academic text (2001)

  • During the proofreading process, she found instances of dittography that needed correction.

  • To avoid dittography, the editor carefully examined each page for any repeated phrases.

Synonyms

double word
vsdittography
3.4

A repeated word in writing that appears by accident

includes repeated letters, words, or phrases rather than only words

Surface Forms

dittography singular
dittographies plural

Morphology

dittography = ditto (semi-transparent) = ditto + graphy

The term can be loosely understood as 'repeat/same' plus '-graphy' ('writing'), but the specialized sense of accidental repetition is not fully predictable from the parts.

Etymology

Dittography combines ditto (a word people use to show 'repeat') and the root -graphy (like in autograph, meaning 'writing'), which gives a clear image of repeated writing. So, dittography is an accidental repetition of letters or words in writing.