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 pool is, for many of us in the West, a symbol not of affluence but of order, of control over the uncontrollable. A pool is water, made available and useful, and is, as such, infinitely soothing to the western eye.”
    —Joan Didion (b. 1934)

    “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)