{{Short description|Sequence of letters that behaves as a unit, not as a sequence of parts}} {{Unreferenced|date=December 2021}} {{notability |date=October 2025}} A '''multigraph''' (or '''pleograph''') is a sequence of letters that behaves as a unit and is not the sum of its parts, such as English {{angbr|ch}} ({{small|typically pronounced}} {{IPAc-en|tS}}) or French {{angbr|eau}} ({{IPA|fr|o|pron}}). The term is infrequently used, as the number of letters is usually specified: {{ordered list|start=2 | Digraph – two, as English {{angbr|ch}} or {{angbr|ea}} | Trigraph – three, as French {{angbr|eau}} and Italian {{angbr|gli}} | Tetragraph – four, as German {{angbr|tsch}} and Dutch {{angbr|ieuw}} | Pentagraph – five, as Avar {{angbr|чӀчӀв}} and Archi {{angbr|ххьӏв}} | Hexagraph – six, as Irish {{angbr|oidhea}} or {{angbr|eamhai}} | Heptagraph – seven, as German {{angbr|schtsch}} and Juu {{angbr|dtsʼkxʼ}} (theoretically, see below) }}
Some multigraphs are considered ligatures, or letters unto themselves, such as {{angbr|ij}} in Dutch, {{angbr|dzs}} in Hungarian, and {{angbr|dž}} in Serbo-Croatian and a few other Slavic languages.
Combinations longer than tetragraphs are unusual. The German pentagraph {{angbr|tzsch}} has largely been replaced by {{angbr|tsch}}, remaining only in proper names such as {{angbr|Pönitzsch}} or {{angbr|Nietzsche}}. Except for doubled trigraphs like German {{angbr|schsch}}, hexagraphs are found only in Irish vowels, where the outside letters indicate whether the neighbouring consonant is "broad" or "slender". However, these sequences are not predictable. The hexagraph {{angbr|oidhea}}, for example, where the {{angbr|o}} and {{angbr|a}} mark the consonants as broad, represents the same sound (approximately the vowel in English ''write'') as the trigraph {{angbr|adh}}, and with the same effect on neighbouring consonants.
== Heptagraphs == Heptagraphs are extremely rare. Most fixed seven-letter sequences are composed of shorter multigraphs with a predictable result. The German sequence {{angbr|schtsch}}, used to transliterate Ukrainian {{angbr|щ}}, as in {{angbr|Borschtsch}} for {{angbr|борщ}} "borscht", is a sequence of a trigraph {{angbr|sch}} and a tetragraph {{angbr|tsch}} rather than a heptagraph. Likewise, the Juu languages have been claimed to have a heptagraph {{angbr|dts’kx’}}, but this is also a sequence, of {{angbr|dts’}} and {{angbr|kx’}}.
Beyond the Latin alphabet, Morse code uses hexagraphs for several punctuation marks, and the dollar sign {{angbr|$}} is a heptagraph, {{angbr|· · · — · · —}}. Longer sequences in Morse are considered ligatures, and transcribed as such in the Latin alphabet.
==See also== * Unigraph (orthography)
Category:Multigraphs (orthography)
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