emblem

[em-bluhm]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR emblem ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an object or its representation, symbolizing a quality, state, class of persons, etc.; symbol: The olive branch is an emblem of peace.

a sign, design, or figure that identifies or represents something: the emblem of a school.

an allegorical picture, often inscribed with a motto supplemental to the visual image with which it forms a single unit of meaning.

Obsolete. an inlaid or tessellated ornament.

verb (used with object)

to represent with an emblem.

Nearby words

Origin of emblem

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin emblēma inlaid or mosaic work < Greek émblēma something put on, equivalent to em- em-² + blêma something thrown or put; compare embállein to throw in or on

SYNONYMS FOR emblem

1. token, sign, figure, image, device, badge.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR emblem ON THESAURUS.COM

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for emblem

The Pahonia, emblem of the Belarusian nation drawn from the insignia of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, is banned under Lukashenko.
Forget Kim Jong Un—China’s New Favorite Dictator Is Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko.|Kapil Komireddi|January 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Prabhakaran had come to personify the movement, and his end, so wretched, became the emblem of Tamil defeat and Sinhalese triumph.
Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka’s Reign of Terror|Kapil Komireddi|November 15, 2013|DAILY BEAST
In 2006, when I was a visiting professor at Marquette, I found an envelope with the Esquire emblem on it in my campus mailbox.
Benjamin Percy: How I Write|Noah Charney|June 5, 2013|DAILY BEAST
But it's also more--it's an emblem of how much worse we are as a society than we used to be.
The Apple That Fell Far From the Tree|Michael Tomasky|July 9, 2012|DAILY BEAST

Max McGuinness on an afternoon devoted to the emblem of a generation of writers, thinkers, and, yes, revolutionaries.
The Christopher Hitchens Memorial: Without God, but With Style|Max McGuinness|April 24, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Will ye join in the toast to the emblem of Erin—the shamrock, Phil and Pat?'
The Celt and Saxon, Complete|George Meredith
She was the goddess of married love, she became later the emblem of lust.
The Hearts of Men|H. Fielding
Is it credible that a Clarendon Press editor should be ignorant that ivydoctarum heder prmia frontiumis the emblem of the poet?
Ephemera Critica|John Churton Collins
The cross, which was in those days the gibbet of the vilest malefactors, was to all the world an emblem only of shame and horror.
Darkness and Dawn|Frederic W. Farrar
To the emblem writers the Plane was an example of something good to the eye, but of no real use.
The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare|Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

British Dictionary definitions for emblem

emblem

noun

a visible object or representation that symbolizes a quality, type, group, etc, esp the concrete symbol of an abstract ideathe dove is an emblem of peace

an allegorical picture containing a moral lesson, often with an explanatory motto or verses, esp one printed in an emblem book

Derived Formsemblematic or emblematical, adjectiveemblematically, adverb

Word Origin for emblem

C15: from Latin emblēma raised decoration, mosaic, from Greek, literally: something inserted, from emballein to insert, from ballein to throw

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

Word Origin and History for emblem

emblem

1580s, from French emblème "symbol" (16c.), from Latin emblema "inlaid ornamental work," from Greek emblema (genitive emblematos) "embossed ornament," literally "insertion," from emballein "to insert," literally "to throw in," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + ballein "to throw" (see ballistics).

emblem

noun

verb (used with object)

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Origin of emblem

Examples from the Web for emblem

emblem

noun

Word Origin for emblem

emblem