Word.ws English Dictionary

Christogram

Christogram noun: a monogram that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol, such as the chi-rho.

Noun

Christogram (plural Christograms)

  1. A monogram that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol, such as the chi-rho.
    • Had he [the creator of a Pompeiian mosaic] been a Christian, he would certainly have given expression to his faith by some definite Christian symbol, — the fish or the ΑΩ, or the Christogram.1903, P. C., chapter 17, in The Open Court, page 185
    • About thirty of these [markings on Pompeiian amphorae] appear to be either the so-called christograms […] or other monograms disturbingly reminiscent of the various christograms1978, W. O. Moeller, “Marks Names and Numbers”, in Boer, editor, Hommages a Maarten J. Vermaseren, page 813

Forms of Christogram

pluralChristograms
alternative form (obsolete)Christogramme

Origin of Christogram

From Christo- + gram, c. 1900, adopted from German Christogramm, in c. 1860 as portmanteau or abbreviation of the slightly older (1840s) and more formal compound Christusmonogramm, translating the Medieval Latin monogramma Christi. English literature before 1900 used compositional "Monogram of Christ" or the rare chrismon. First attested in the 1860s. The plural Christograms is recorded in the 1950s and also rare.

Questions about Christogram

What does Christogram mean?
Christogram means a monogram that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol, such as the chi-rho.
What part of speech is Christogram?
Christogram is a noun.
What is the plural of Christogram?
The plural of Christogram is Christograms.

Words near Christogram in the dictionary

  1. Christoffersens
  2. Christofferson
  3. Christoffersons
  4. Christoffs
  5. Christofilos effect
  6. Christogram
  7. Christogramme
  8. Christogrammes
  9. Christograms
  10. Christolatry
  11. Christological

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Christogram (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: “Christogram.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/christogram. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.