Tetragram
//ˈtɛ.tɹəˌɡɹæm// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A group of four letters.
- 2 a word that is written with four letters in an alphabetic writing system wordnet
- 3 In the Taixuanjing, a sequence of four lines, each of which may be unbroken, broken once, or broken twice. Each sequence is interpreted as an element of the sets of solid lines (⚊ for Heaven), once-broken lines (⚋ for Earth) and twice-broken lines (𝌀 for Man) formed by combinations of four monograms (two digrams or bigrams, in other words) in the divination of the Taixuanjing.
Example
More examples"On the 27th of March of 2015, I first encounter now the word "tetragram." It is apparently any square-shaped symbol of a complex writing system in the Sinosphere. A sinogram, or sinograph, is a tetragram. It is my first time of learning that term. "Tetra" means four. Japanese Kana are tetragrams, as well as Korean Hangeul, because they are square-shaped, too."
Etymology
From tetra- + -gram.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.