noun
- a pair of letters or characters that together represent a single sound or phoneme
- an instrument for drawing or copying diagrams and designs mechanically
Usage: linguistics; also called digraph
Usage: technical; archaic
Examples
- In English, 'th' is a diagraph representing a single sound.
- The diagraph 'ch' in 'church' stands for one distinct phoneme.
- Students learn to identify diagraphs when studying phonics.
- The letter combination 'sh' is a common diagraph in English.
- Diagraphs are important in understanding how written language maps to spoken sounds.