Etymology
From French symbole, from Latin symbolus, symbolum (a sign, mark, token, symbol, in Late Latin also a creed), from Ancient Greek σύμβολον or súmbolon (a sign by which one infers something; a mark, token, badge, ticket, tally, check, a signal, watchword, outward sign), from συμβάλλω or sumbállō (I throw together, dash together, compare, correspond, tally, come to a conclusion), from σύν or sún (with, together) + βάλλω or bállō (I throw, put).
Noun
symbol (plural symbols)
- A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.
- $ is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries.
- Chinese people use word symbols for writing.
- A thing considered the embodiment of a concept or object.
- (linguistics) A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent.
- A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.
- The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols.
- (programming) An internal identifier used by a debugger to relate parts of the compiled program to the corresponding names in the source code.
- (telecommunications) A signalling event on a communications channel; a signal that cannot be further divided into meaningful information.
Derived terms
- status symbol
- typographical symbol
Related terms
- symbolic
- symbolize
- symbolism
Verb
symbol (third-person singular simple present symbols, present participle symboling or symbolling, simple past and past participle symboled or symbolled)
- To symbolize.
Credits
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