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:

    A symbol is indeed the only possible expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame; while allegory is one of many possible representations of an embodied thing, or familiar principle, and belongs to fancy and not to imagination: the one is a revelation, the other an amusement.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    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)

    The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action, in man.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)