Pronounced: nat-plus-UHL-truh, noun
Notes: I don’t think I’ve run across this phrase
Yesterday’s word
The word heterography means
- a spelling different from the one in current use
- use of the same letter or letters to convey different sounds
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1700s
Background / Comments
Our word came from two Greek words: hetero- (different) and -graphy (writing). As I noted, I could parse these two words, but it didn’t help this time with the meaning. Regarding the second definition above, one example is the letter “c” that can be “hard” (cake) or “soft” (cease). We also have “th” in “with” and “then”, or more dramatically, the “gh” in “enough” and “ghost”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 