Standard Lemma guide

graphosphere

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The "totality of graphic devices used to record, store, display, and disseminate messages and information, and the social and cultural spaces in which they figure."

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 2005, Jacques Derrida (2005), cited in R. Burt, 2016, Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media, Springer. p. 24. What belongs to the graphosphere always implies some kind of surface, and even the materiality of some kind of backing or support; but not all graphemes are necessarily imprinted on paper, or the skin, photographic film, or a piece of parchment.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The age of print (following the logosphere, or age of writing, and preceding the videosphere).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: history, human-sciences, sciences

Examples

  • 2007, Régis Debray, "Socialism: A life-cycle," New Left Review, 46, July-August 2007. A second period, the graphosphere, runs from 1448 to around 1968: from the Gutenberg Revolution to the rise of TV.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From grapho- + -sphere.

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: graphosphère — Translations