-graphy explained

The English suffix -graphy means a "field of study" or related to "writing" a book, and is an anglicization of the French French: -graphie inherited from the Latin Latin: -graphia, which is a transliterated direct borrowing from Greek.

Arts

• Cartography – art and field of making maps
• Choreography – art of creating and arranging dances or ballets
• Cinematography – art of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema.
• Collagraphy - In printmaking, a fine art technique in which collage materials are used as ink-carrying imagery on a printing plate.
• Iconography – art of interpreting the content by icons
• Klecksography – art of making images from inkblots
• Lithography – planographic printing technique
• Photography – art, practice or occupation of taking and printing photographs
• Photolithography – method for microfabrication in electronics manufacturing
• Pornography – practice, occupation and result of producing sexually arousing imagery or words
• Pyrography – art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks
• Serigraphy – printmaking technique that uses a stencil made of fine synthetic material through which ink is forced
• Tasseography – art of reading tea leaves
• Thermography – thermal imaging
• Tomography – three-dimensional imaging
• Typography – art and techniques of type design
• Videography – art and techniques of filming video
• Vitreography – in printmaking, a fine art technique that uses glass printing matrices
• Xerography – means of copying documents

Writing

• Cacography – bad handwriting or spelling
• Calligraphy – art of fine handwriting
• Orthography – rules of correct writing
• Palaeography – study of historical handwriting
• Pictography – use of pictographs
• Steganography – art of writing hidden messages
• Stenography – art of writing in shorthand

Types of works

• Bibliography – list of writings, typically those used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work or research
  • Metabibliography – bibliography of bibliographies
• Biography – account of a person's life
  • Autobiography – biography of a person written by themselves
• Discography – list of recorded music, or other sound recordings/auditory media
• Filmography – list of films, documentaries, or other visual media
• Ludography (or gameography) – list of games, specifically video games
• Webography (or webliography or arachniography) – list of websites, or URLs

Fields of study

• Areography – geography of Mars (studies the physical features of the planet)
• Cartography – study and making of maps
• Cosmography – study and making of maps of the universe or cosmos
• Cryptography – study of securing information
• Crystallography – study of crystals
• Demography – study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics
• Encephalography – recording of voltages from the brain
• Ethnography – study of cultures
• Floriography – language of flowers
• Geography – study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth.
  • Physiography – study of the processes and patterns in the Earth's environment.
  • Anthropogeography – study of human society's interactions and relationships with the environment.
• Hagiography – study of saints
• Historiography – study of the methods of historians
• Holography – study and mapping of computer project imaged called Holograms for interactive and assisted computations.
• Hydrography – measurement and description of any waters
• Oceanography – exploration and scientific study of the ocean and its phenomena
• Orography – science and study of mountains
• Radiography – use of X-rays to produce medical images
• Reprography – reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means
• Selenography – study and mapping of the physical features of the Moon
• Topography – study of Earth's surface shape and features or those of planets, moons and asteroids
• Uranography – study and mapping of stars and space objects

See also

• -ism
• -ology
• -logy
• List of words ending in ology

References

• Book: Black, Richard Harrison . The student's manual complete; an etymological vocabulary of words derived from the Greek and Latin . 1874 . Oxford University . 10–12 . -graphy. . 2009-07-28.
• Book: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English . 2009 . 2009-07-28.