Cacography

//kaˈkɒɡɹəfi// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Bad spelling or punctuation, especially unintuitive spellings considered as a feature of a whole language or dialect. countable, uncountable

    "A phrase exhibits proofs of cacography, when the accents are misplaced, forgotten, or used erroneously."

  2. 2
    poor handwriting wordnet
  3. 3
    Deliberate comic misspelling; malapropism. countable, uncountable

    "The soul of dialect is cacography, the deliberate misspelling of words for comic effect, which is the written equivalent of the malapropism."

  4. 4
    Poor or illegible handwriting. countable, uncountable

    "Many illegible letters is the sign of disorder, and the illegibility of Greeley's cacography has furnished numberless anecdotes."

Etymology

From caco- + -graphy, perhaps after Middle French cacographie.

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