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)

    If we define a sign as an exact reference, it must include symbol because a symbol is an exact reference too. The difference seems to be that a sign is an exact reference to something definite and a symbol an exact reference to something indefinite.
    William York Tindall (1903–1981)

    Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)