Dittography

{{Short description|Accidental repeating of content in text}}

{{confused|ditto machine}}

Dittography is the accidental, erroneous act of repeating a letter, word, phrase or combination of letters by a scribe or copyist.{{cite web |last1=Flusser |first1=David |last2=Rylaarsdam |first2=J. Coert |title=Biblical literature - Writing Materials, Methods |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/biblical-literature/Types-of-writing-materials-and-methods#ref597992 |website=www.britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=4 February 2025 |language=en}}Paul D. Wegner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SIMsY6b2n2gC&pg=PA48 A student's guide to textual criticism of the Bible: its history, methods, and results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521202314/https://books.google.com/books?id=SIMsY6b2n2gC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq= |date=2021-05-21 }}, InterVarsity Press, 2006, p. 48. The term is used in the field of textual criticism, especially in critical studies of ancient or biblical literature. The opposite phenomenon, in which a copyist omits text by skipping from a word or phrase to a similar word or phrase further on, is known as haplography.