Informally, an ography is a field of study or academic discipline ending in the noun combining form -ography. The word ography is therefore a back-formation from the names of these disciplines. Such words are formed from Greek or Latin roots with the combining form -graphy derived from the Greek verb γραφειν (graphein), "to write", plus the abstract noun suffix -ia in Greek, which became Latin, and then French, before becoming English -y. The word ography is thus misleading, as the <o> is actually part of the Greek root that receives the -graphy ending. For example, the bio- root of biography stems from Greek βιος (bios), life. This is why some of the words listed below do not end in -ography (such as calligraphy).

Some non-study ographies are the following:

• Autobiography, the biography of a person written by that person
• Bibliography, a list of writings used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work
• Biography, an account of a person's life
• Calligraphy, the art of fine handwriting
• Choreography, the art of creating and arranging dances or ballets
• Cryptography, the art of hiding the content of information
• Floriography, the language of flowers
• Orthography, rules of correct writing
• Photography, the art, practice, or occupation of taking and printing photographs
• Steganography, the art of writing hidden messages
• Stenography, the art of writing in shorthand
• Tasseography, the art of reading tea leaves

Some study-related ographies are the following:

• Areography, the study of the physical features of the planet Mars
• Cartography, the study and making of maps
• Demography, the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics
• Geography, the study of spatial relationships on the Earth's surface
• Hagiography, the study of saints
• Historiography, the study of the study of history
• Oceanography, the exploration and scientific study of the ocean and its phenomena
• Orography, the science and study of mountains