picture writing

See synonyms for picture writing on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the art of recording events or expressing ideas by pictures, or pictorial symbols, as practiced by preliterate peoples.

  2. pictorial symbols forming a record or communication.

Origin of picture writing

1
First recorded in 1735–45

Words Nearby picture writing

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use picture writing in a sentence

  • The Quiches were acquainted with a kind of picture-writing, and possessed records in which myth glided into history.

  • You will ask, how could the Chinese have built up a great intellectual fabric from mere picture writing?

    Instigations | Ezra Pound
  • In spite of its age, the first part that unrolled showed clear and strong picture writing, in bright colors.

    The Blind Lion of the Congo | Elliott Whitney
  • The signs are, of course, later than the picture-writing of the hieroglyph, and also later than the linear script suited to stone.

    Sumerian Hymns | Frederick Augustus Vanderburgh
  • I've sure heard a heap about that picture writing, and what fun scouts have trying to make out what it all means.

British Dictionary definitions for picture writing

picture writing

noun
  1. any writing system that uses pictographs

  2. a system of artistic expression and communication using pictures or symbolic figures

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012