What does chartography mean?
Chartography is a rare English noun denoting the art and science of making maps and charts, particularly the nautical charts used in navigation. It functions essentially as an uncommon variant of the far more familiar word cartography, and the two are interchangeable in meaning. Where cartography has become the standard scholarly and everyday term for all forms of mapmaking, chartography survives mainly in historical and maritime contexts, appearing in older texts on seafaring and navigation. The word carries a slightly technical, old-fashioned flavor, evoking an era when charts were drafted by hand from shipboard observations of coastline, depth, and bearing. For most purposes, writers today should choose cartography; chartography is worth knowing chiefly because it illuminates how English once accommodated multiple spellings for the same specialized discipline, and it remains legible to anyone who knows its dominant sibling.
nounChartography is a rare variant of cartography, meaning the science and art of making maps and charts, especially navigational charts.
- The practice or discipline of making maps and charts, especially nautical charts; a variant of cartography.
"The museum's exhibit on chartography traced the evolution of nautical charts from hand-drawn parchment to satellite imagery."
"Early chartography relied on soundings taken by lead line and bearings fixed by compass."
"She studied historical chartography to understand how sailors navigated before accurate longitude tables existed."
As an uncountable mass noun denoting a discipline, chartography normally has no plural; a plural is theoretically possible but virtually unattested.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chartography
Chartography combines 'chart', from Latin 'charta' meaning a sheet of papyrus or paper, itself borrowed from Greek 'chartēs', with the Greek-derived suffix '-graphy', from 'graphein', to write or draw. It thus belongs to the large family of '-graphy' words denoting descriptive disciplines, alongside geography and oceanography. The form arose as a variant of cartography, which pairs the same suffix with Latin 'charta' via Italian 'carta'. Its cognates therefore include cartography, cartogram, and other chart- and graph-derived terms.
How chartography is actually used
Chartography is markedly less common than cartography and may strike readers as archaic or nonstandard. Writers should prefer cartography in almost all modern contexts; chartography appears chiefly in older maritime literature or as a deliberate stylistic choice.
Easily confused with chartography
Cartography is the standard, universally accepted term for mapmaking, while chartography is an uncommon variant spelling largely confined to historical or specialized nautical usage.
Choreography refers to the design of dance movements, whereas chartography concerns the making of maps and charts; the two resemble each other in spelling but are entirely unrelated in meaning.