emblem
[em-bluh m]
- 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.
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- to represent with an emblem.
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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
See more synonyms for emblem on Thesaurus.com1. token, sign, figure, image, device, badge.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for emblem
Contemporary Examples
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
This was the emblem of King Richard II, who was saved from killing a white deer, which in British legend is terribly bad luck.
Prabhakaran had come to personify the movement, and his end, so wretched, became the emblem of Tamil defeat and Sinhalese triumph.
In 2006, when I was a visiting professor at Marquette, I found an envelope with the Esquire emblem on it in my campus mailbox.
But it's also more--it's an emblem of how much worse we are as a society than we used to be.
Historical Examples
The plane in which we travelled bore the emblem of the World Patrol.
City of Endless NightMilo Hastings
Forever it should be the emblem of crime and disaster beneath its shadow.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used by the old poets.
StoryologyBenjamin Taylor
Burned into his bare flesh was the emblem of their legendary sun-god.
Two Thousand Miles BelowCharles Willard Diffin
The worth of the thing signified must vindicate our taste for the emblem.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
emblem
- 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
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for emblem
n.
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).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper