Monograph

How to spell monograph

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monograph

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monograph mean?

1. nounA detailed written study or treatise on a single, specialised subject.

Monograph in a sentence

• The curator published a monograph on medieval coinage from the region.

• Her doctoral research grew into a full-length monograph on coastal erosion.

Where does monograph come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word was assembled from two Greek elements: monos, meaning 'single' or 'alone', and graphein, meaning 'to write'. Put together, a monograph is literally a piece of writing devoted to a single thing. The term emerged in the nineteenth century in scholarly and scientific circles, where it described a detailed treatise focused on one narrow subject rather than a broad survey. The same monos turns up in 'monopoly', 'monotone' and 'monologue', while graphein gives us 'paragraph', 'photograph' and 'biography'. Remembering that it is one piece of writing about one topic keeps the spelling 'mono', not 'mona', firmly in place.

How the word is built

• mono- (single, one)
• graph (from Greek graphein: to write)