-ography

Suffixes

-ware

Informally, an ography is a field of study or academic discipline ending in the noun combining form -ography. The word ography is therefore a back-formation from the names of these disciplines. Such words are formed from Greek or Latin roots with the combining form -graphy derived from the Greek verb γραφειν (graphein), "to write", plus the abstract noun suffix -ia in Greek, which became Latin, and then French, before becoming English -y. The word ography is thus misleading, as the is actually part of the Greek root that receives the -graphy ending. For example, the bio- root of biography stems from Greek βιος (bios), life. This is why some of the words listed below do not end in -ography (such as calligraphy).

Some non-study ographies are the following:

Autobiography, the biography of a person written by that person
Bibliography, a list of writings used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work
Biography, an account of a person's life
Calligraphy, the art of fine handwriting
Choreography, the art of creating and arranging dances or ballets
Cryptography, the art of hiding the content of information
Floriography, the language of flowers
Orthography, rules of correct writing
Photography, the art, practice, or occupation of taking and printing photographs
Steganography, the art of writing hidden messages
Stenography, the art of writing in shorthand
Tasseography, the art of reading tea leaves

Some study-related ographies are the following:

Areography, the study of the physical features of the planet Mars
Cartography, the study and making of maps
Demography, the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics
Geography, the study of spatial relationships on the Earth's surface
Hagiography, the study of saints
Historiography, the study of the study of history
Oceanography, the exploration and scientific study of the ocean and its phenomena
Orography, the science and study of mountains