graffiti, graffito

Poetic, political and humorous scribbles, as well as unauthorized decoration or defacement appearing on walls, are known as graffiti.

• Get out your spray paint: City Council has decided to permit graffiti on one wall of the old theatre.

The singular is graffito:

• The graffito I saw in a Vancouver pub was very amusing.

However, the plural form graffiti is increasingly seen with both singular and plural verbs.

• Graffiti have (or has) become a blight on the urban landscape, even though some examples are artistic.