grapho-, graph-, -graph, -graphy, -grapher, -graphia +
(Greek: to scratch; to write, to record, to draw, to describe; that which is written or described)
As indicated at the bottom of this page, there are at least 1,140 graphic word groups in this unit. Such an extensive listing is provided to show how significant the grapho- element is to the English language.
biogeography
1. The science of the geographical distribution of living things, animal (zoogeography) and vegetable (phytogeography).
2. The study of the geographical distributions of organisms, their habitats (ecological biogeography) and the historical and biological factors that produced them (historical biogeography).
biograph
1. An earlier form of the cinematograph.
2. An instrument for analyzing and rendering visible the movements of animals; used in diagnosis of certain nervous diseases.
3. To write or prepare a biography.
biographer
One who writes about the lives of people excluding oneself.
biographic
1. A reference to an account of someone’s life in the form of a book, movie, or television program, written or produced by another person.
2. Descriptive term for books about people’s lives, considered as a whole or as a type of literature.
Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.
—Soren Kierkegaard
biographical, biographically
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with biography; or a written account of another person's life.
2. Referring to, or pertaining to, a person's life.
biography
1. The history of the lives of individual men and women, as a branch of literature.
2. The written record of the life of an individual.
3. The life-course of a man or other living being; the “life-history” of an animal or plant.
This is the best biography by me I have ever read.
—Lawrence Welk
A biography is a book that is usually written about a dead person because it is so unlike him when he was alive.
—Evan Esar
bio-oceanography
The study of the flora and fauna of oceans in relation to their marine environments.
biophysiolography
Structural or descriptive biology.
bioroentgenography
Obsolete term for the making of x-ray pictures of subjects in motion. Now known as cineradiography.
biostratigraphy, biostratigraphic
The study and classification of rock strata based on their fossil content; stratigraphic paleontology.
black dermatographia
The discoloration of the skin by metal that appears after rubbing with a blunt point.
blastography
The scientific description of the buds of plants.
bolograph
A record, or recording, made by a bolometer (an instrument for measuring radiant energy by determining the changes of resistance in an electrical conductor).
botanography
Written descriptions of plants.
brachygraphic
Referring to an abbreviated, symbolic writing method which improves the speed of writing or brevity as compared to a normal method of writing a language.
Related "writing" word units:
glypto-;
gram-;
scrib-, script-.
Subscribe to this FREE Focusing on Words Newsletter