Symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something that represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for numbers. Personal names are symbols representing individuals. A red rose symbolizes love and compassion.

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Famous quotes containing the word symbol:

    “Whatever we inherit from the fortunate
    We have taken from the defeated
    What they had to leave us—a symbol:
    A symbol perfected in death.”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    “There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me ...
    I do not know it—it is without name—it is a word unsaid,
    It is not in any dictionary, utterance, symbol ...
    Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
    It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is Happiness.”
    —Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    “Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)