Word.ws English Dictionary

bustrophedon

bustrophedon is the alternative form of boustrophedon.

Meaning of boustrophedon

Noun

boustrophedon (countable and uncountable, plural boustrophedons)

  1. Text written such that its direction alternates on each line, resulting in a continuous stream of characters spanning multiple lines; frequently also involving the corresponding alternation of letter directionality using mirrored letters, indicating the direction of the text at any given point.
    • The number of Attic boustrophedon texts is fairly small; most of those just cited have been brought down by the experts to a date close to 550 B.C., a date to which several texts of more than one line inscribed left to right may also be assigned (cf. pp.56—57 infra), besides the four-line...1980, Leslie Threatte, The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions: Phonology, page 55

See all 3 meanings of boustrophedon

Forms of bustrophedon

pluralbustrophedons

Words formed from bustrophedon

Questions about bustrophedon

What is bustrophedon the alternative form of?
Bustrophedon is the alternative form of boustrophedon.

Words near bustrophedon in the dictionary

  1. busto
  2. bustoes
  3. Buston
  4. bustos
  5. Bustoses
  6. bustrophedon
  7. bustrophedons
  8. busts
  9. busts a cap
  10. busts a gut
  11. busts a move

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bustrophedon (page history and authors); boustrophedon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bustrophedon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bustrophedon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.