grapheme

Plural: graphemes

Noun

• The smallest functional unit of a writing system.
• a written symbol that is used to represent speech
• A fundamental unit of a writing system, corresponding to (for example) letters in the English alphabet or jamo in Korean hangul.
• A sequence of one or more code points that are processed and displayed as a single graphical unit of a writing system.
• In alphabetic writing, the shortest group of letters composing a phoneme.

Examples

• A clever Scrabble player sees not just letters but potential graphemes forming words.

Synonyms

character, graphic symbol, grapheme cluster