Is graffiti singular or plural?: Usage Guide
Graffiti, which also serves as the plural of graffito, is commonly used as a singular mass noun.
graffiti … was depressing people who rode the subways
—
New Yorker
New Yorker
graffiti comes in various styles
—S. K. Oberbeck
S. K. Oberbeck
This use is well established although not yet as well established as the mass-noun use of data. Use of graffiti as a singular count noun is still quite rare and is not standard.
graffitied; graffitiing
grə-ˈfē-(ˌ)tē-iŋ 
gra-,
grä-
also graffiting
grə-ˈfē-tiŋ
gra-,
grä-
: to draw graffiti on : to deface with graffiti
graffitied walls
Examples of graffiti in a Sentence
Noun
The walls of the old building are covered with graffiti.
Recent Examples on the Web
Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2025
This graffiti is unequivocally hate speech, and as such is a crime.
—Bob Skolnik, Chicago Tribune, 25 Feb. 2025
Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024
The London Street Art outing where my daughter got to graffiti a butterfly onto a building wall provided some of the cutest pictures from the trip.
—Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 12 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for graffiti
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Noun
The Man Nobody Killed explores the artistic underground of 1980s NYC at a shocking moment in which one of their own—a Black graffiti artist who ran in the same circles as Basquiat and Madonna—was brutally murdered by police while out tagging.
—Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2025
This graffiti is unequivocally hate speech, and as such is a crime.
—Bob Skolnik, Chicago Tribune, 25 Feb. 2025
Verb
Clémentine is part of a brigade of women who graffiti anti–domestic abuse messages on Paris’s walls.
—Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024
The London Street Art outing where my daughter got to graffiti a butterfly onto a building wall provided some of the cutest pictures from the trip.
—Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 12 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for graffiti
Cite this Entry
“Graffiti.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/graffiti. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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