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
George Avalos, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025
Enhance La Jolla has authority to augment services provided by the city, including landscape maintenance, street and sidewalk cleaning, litter and graffiti abatement and additional trash collection.
—Ashley MacKin Solomon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 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
Over the years, the old bus terminal was covered with graffiti, and city officials raised concerns that the parcel was yet another site of blight in San Jose.
—George Avalos, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025
Enhance La Jolla has authority to augment services provided by the city, including landscape maintenance, street and sidewalk cleaning, litter and graffiti abatement and additional trash collection.
—Ashley MacKin Solomon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 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 31 Oct. 2025.
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