hieroglyph
Americannoun
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a single symbol in a hieroglyphic writing system.
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something that resembles a symbol in a hieroglyphic writing system.
Explanation
A hieroglyph is a picture that represents a word or part of a word. Several ancient cultures, including Egyptians and Mayans, used hieroglyphs as part of their writing systems. The earliest hieroglyphs archaeologists have found were carved in stone around 3000 BCE, in Egypt. These symbols and pictures were clearly not just illustrations, but part of a true written language. Each hieroglyph stood for an object or action, represented the sound of a syllable, and made the meaning of surrounding hieroglyphs clear. The Greek roots of this word are hieros, "sacred," and glyphe, "carving."
Vocabulary lists containing hieroglyph
The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle
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The Way to Rio Luna
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Variations of these ideas have appeared at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the now-iconic Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project at the Hammer, the rooftop at the Met and the Venice Biennale.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026
Currently, she has an architectural prototype of her “Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project” on view at the Hammer Museum.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 25, 2018
But science-fiction writers have a responsibility, in the view of the Hieroglyph project, to excite the public imagination with possibility.
From Slate • Sep. 19, 2014
One of the noble ambitions of Neal Stephenson’s Hieroglyph project is to move away from the dystopian mode of storytelling.
From Slate • Sep. 19, 2014
For my story in Hieroglyph, I was hoping to pull off a fake-out—you think the story is going in one, fairly depressing direction, and then it suddenly turns out to be something quite different.
From Slate • Sep. 18, 2014
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
