-graphy

-graphy is an English suffix. Words that include the suffix usually are about a work, an art, or a field of study.

Etymology

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

Arts

• Cartography - the art and field of map making
• Choreography - the art of creating and arranging dances or ballets
• Cinematography - the 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.
• Cryptography - the art of disguising information
• Lithography - a planographic printing technique.
• Photolithography - a method for micro fabrication in electronics manufacturing.
• Pornography - the practice, occupation and result of producing sexually arousing imagery or words.
• Photography - the art, practice or occupation of taking and printing photographs.
• Serigraphy - a printmaking technique that uses a stencil made of fine synthetic material through which ink is forced.
• Tasseography - the art of reading tea leaves
• Thermography - thermal imaging.
• Tomography - three dimensional imaging
• Typography - the art and techniques of type design
• Videography - the art and techniques of filming video.
• Vitreography - In printmaking, a fine art technique that uses glass printing matrices.
• Xerography - a means of copying documents.

Writing

• Cacography, bad handwriting or spelling
• Calligraphy - the art of fine handwriting
• Orthography - rules of correct writing
• Pictography - the use of pictographs
• Steganography - the art of writing hidden messages
• Stenography - the art of writing in shorthand

Science

• Radiography - use of x-rays to produce medical images

Types of works

• Autobiography - the biography of a person written by that person
• Bibliography - a list of writings used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work
• Biography - an account of a person's life
• Discography - a listing of sound recordings
• Filmography - a selective list of movie titles that share a similar characteristic such as the same genre, the same director, the same actor, etc.\
• Webography - a bibliography published on the Internet, or a similar listing of websites

Fields of study

• Cartography - the study and making of maps
• Crystallography - the study of crystals
• Demography - the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics
• Encephalography - the recording of voltages from the brain
• Floriography - the language of flowers
• Geography - the study of spatial relationships on the Earth's surface
• Hagiography - the study of saints
• Holography - the study and mapping of computer project imaged called Holograms for interactive and assisted computations.
• Historiography - the study of the study of history
• Hydrography - the measurement and description of any waters
• Oceanography - the exploration and scientific study of the ocean and its phenomena
• Orography - the science and study of mountains
• Reprography - the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means
• Selenography - the study and mapping of the physical features of the Moon
• Topography - the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those of planets, moons and asteroids
• Uranography - the study and mapping of stars and space objects

See also

• -ism
• -ology
• -gram

References

• Black, Richard Harrison (1874). The student's manual complete; an etymological vocabulary of words derived from the Greek and Latin. Oxford University. pp. 10–12. http://books.google.com/books?id=AnACAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22-graphy%22&pg=PA10. Retrieved 2009-07-28. 
• The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-graphy.html. Retrieved 2009-07-28.