calligraphy
/kəˈlɪɡɹəfi/noun
calligraphy is spelled C-A-L-L-I-G-R-A-P-H-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is caligraphy: about 1,230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 15 of all searches for the word. Calligraphy is a noun meaning “The art or practice of writing letters and words in a decorative style; the letters and words so written”. The plural of calligraphy is calligraphies.
How many letters and syllables are in calligraphy?
| Letters | 11: C-A-L-L-I-G-R-A-P-H-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, caligraphy, about 1,230 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell calligraphy?
Calligraphy is spelled C-A-L-L-I-G-R-A-P-H-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for calligraphy in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is calligraphy?
Calligraphy appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce calligraphy?
- /kəˈlɪɡɹəfi/
Calligraphy has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-calligraphy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with calligraphy?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as calligraphy.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: graphically.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of calligraphy
- calligraphies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does calligraphy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The art or practice of writing letters and words in a decorative style; the letters and words so written.
- 2
Any such style of decorative writing.
- 3
A document written in decorative style.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Calligraphy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense art of writing beautifully:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | calligraphie, chirographie |
| German | Kalligraphie, Schönschreibkunst, Schönschreiben, Schönschrift, gute Handschrift |
| Portuguese | caligrafia, quirografia |
| Spanish | caligrafía, calografía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does calligraphy come from?
Borrowed from French calligraphie, from Ancient Greek καλλιγραφία (kalligraphía, literally “pretty writing”), from κάλλος (kállos, “beauty”) + γράφω (gráphō, “to draw”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).