Graffiti

How to spell graffiti

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce graffiti

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does graffiti mean?

1. nounWriting or drawings scrawled, scratched, or sprayed onto a public surface, usually without permission.

Graffiti in a sentence

• The council spent thousands removing graffiti from the underpass.

• Colourful graffiti covered every panel of the abandoned warehouse.

Where does graffiti come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This word came into English in the mid-1800s straight from Italian, where graffiti is the plural of graffito, meaning a little scratch or scribble. The Italian noun grew from the verb graffiare, 'to scratch', which traces back through Latin to the Greek graphein, meaning 'to write' or 'to draw'; the same Greek root sits inside everyday English words such as 'graph', 'photograph', and 'autograph'. It first entered English as an archaeological term for the casual inscriptions and drawings scratched onto ancient walls at sites like Pompeii, only later broadening to mean the spray-painted markings on modern streets. Because the source is Italian, the spelling keeps that language's logic: a doubled f but a single t, which is exactly the trap, since English speakers often want to double the wrong letter. Remembering that it began as a scratched 'graffio' helps fix the single t and the double f in the mind.

How the word is built

• graff- (from Italian graffio: a scratch)
• -iti (Italian plural ending)