"Boustrophedon" is an unusual word...
Source: tatoeba (5641948)
Boustrophedon
//ˌbuːstɹəˈfiːdən//
Synonyms for "boustrophedon" (4 found)
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Closest matches (1)
Adjective(1 words)
Strong matches (1)
Adverb(1 words)
Related words (2)
Adjective(1 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
2 entriesRelated terms
3 entriesderived
10 entrieshas context
2 entriesis a
1 entriesrelated to
2 entriesTranslations
20 translations across 13 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- بُطْرُفَة noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Catalan
1 entries- bustrofèdon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Esperanto
3 entries- bustrofedono noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- plugoskribado noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- tienreena skribo noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
French
1 entries- boustrophédon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
German
2 entries- Boustrophedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- Bustrophedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Hindi
1 entries- सर्पलेखन noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Japanese
1 entries- 牛耕式 noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Polish
1 entries- bustrofedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Portuguese
1 entries- bustrofédon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Romanian
1 entries- bustrofedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Russian
1 entries- бустрофедо́н noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Spanish
3 entries- bustrofedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- bustrofedón noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- bustrófedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Swedish
3 entries- bustrofedon noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- oxplöjarskrift noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
- plogskrift noun (text written such that its direction alternates on each line)
Sample sentences
4 total sentences available.
The number of Attic boustrophedon texts is fairly small; most of those just cited have been brought down by the experts to a date close to 550 B.C., a date to which several texts of more than one line inscribed left to right may also be assigned (cf. pp.56—57 infra), besides the four-line retrograde sep. mon. of Pediarchus cited in the previous section (cf. p.52 supra). Stone texts only really become numerous in Attica about 550, and by this time it is clear that left-to-right writing is just as common as boustrophedon, and may have been so even earlier.[…]After 540 boustrophedon was certainly unusual.
Source: wiktionary
(Venetic apparently had both kinds of boustrophedon, either flipping the face of the characters when switching direction or else inverting them (Lejeune, 1974, pages 180-181).)
Source: wiktionary
He draws a sharp distinction between true boustrophedon, which has the tops of the runes pointed in the same direction, but with a change in the direction of writing with each line, and false boustrophedon, which changes from upright to inverted runes with each line, but the lines themselves are each written in the same direction.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.