trigraph

T1R1I1G2R1A1P3H4
UK/ˈtɹaɪɡɹɑːf/US/ˈtɹaɪɡɹæf/

noun

A specific sequence of three letters, especially one used collectively to represent a single phoneme.

“The letter “i” is pronounced as /aɪ/ when followed by the trigraph “ght”, as in right /raɪt/.”

OriginAncient Greek γράφω (gráphō) ← Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō ← Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- →
Scrabble 14
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Meanings

nountrigraph (plural trigraphs)

plural trigraphs

  1. human sciencesA specific sequence of three letters, especially one used collectively to represent a single phoneme.

    The letter “i” is pronounced as /aɪ/ when followed by the trigraph “ght”, as in right /raɪt/.

    1 more example

    Then, practice reading fluency sentences together that contain words with trigraphs and other mastered words.

    2023 December 6, Sarah Forst, “How to Teach Trigraphs DGE & TCH”, in The Designer Teacher
  2. computingA three-character sequence used to enter a single conceptual character.

    These new features are charizing, stringization, token concatenation, string concatenation, trigraph replacement, and predefined macros.

    1993, Mark Andrews, Visual C++ Object-oriented Programming, page 186

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tréyes
  2. Proto-Indo-European*tri-
  3. Proto-Italic*tri-
  4. Latintri-
  5. Englishtri-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*gerbʰ-
  7. Proto-Hellenic*grə́pʰō
  8. Ancient Greekγράφω (gráphō)
  9. Englishtrigraph

From tri- + -graph.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech trigraf
  • trigrafsequence of three letters
Finnish kolmoiskirjain, trigrafi
  • kolmoiskirjainsequence of three letters
  • trigrafisequence of three letters
French trigramme
  • trigrammesequence of three letters
German Trigraph
  • Trigraphsequence of three letters
Hungarian trigráf
  • trigráfsequence of three letters
Polish trójznak, trigraf
  • trójznaksequence of three letters
  • trigrafsequence of three letters
Portuguese trígrafo
  • trígrafosequence of three letters
Romanian trigraf
  • trigrafsequence of three letters
Russian тригра́ф
  • тригра́ф (trigráf)sequence of three letters
Cite this entry
APA

trigraph. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trigraph

MLA

“trigraph.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trigraph. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trigraph,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trigraph.

Source: trigraph on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.