Multigraph (orthography)
A multigraph is a sequence of letters that behaves as a unit and is not the sum of its parts, such as English or French . The term is infrequently used, as the number of letters is usually specified:
Some multigraphs are considered ligatures, or letters unto themselves, such as [IJ (digraph)|] in Dutch, [Dzs|] in Hungarian, and [dž|] in Serbo-Croatian and a few other Slavic languages.
Combinations longer than tetragraphs are unusual. The German pentagraph [List_of_Latin-script_pentagraphs#German|] has largely been replaced by List of [Latin-script tetragraphs#German|], remaining only in proper names such as or. Except for doubled trigraphs like German, hexagraphs are found only in Irish vowels, where the outside letters indicate whether the neighbouring consonant is "broad" or "slender". However, these sequences are not predictable. The hexagraph [hexagraph#Irish|], for example, where the and mark the consonants as broad, represents the same sound as the trigraph, and with the same effect on neighbouring consonants.
Heptagraphs
Heptagraphs are extremely rare. Most fixed seven-letter sequences are composed of shorter multigraphs with a predictable result. The German sequence, used to transliterate Ukrainian, as in for "borscht", is a sequence of a trigraph and a tetragraph rather than a heptagraph. Likewise, the Juu languages have been claimed to have a heptagraph, but this is also a sequence, of and.Beyond the Latin alphabet, Morse code uses hexagraphs for several punctuation marks, and the dollar sign is a heptagraph,. Prosigns for [Morse code|Longer sequences] in Morse are considered ligatures, and transcribed as such in the Latin alphabet.