emblem

[em-bluhm]

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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.

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

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for emblem

insignia, banner, symbol, trademark, flag, logo, motto, badge, image, memento, reminder, marker, hallmark, figure, attribute, sign, colors, design, seal, colophon

Examples from the Web for emblem

Contemporary Examples of 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
This was the emblem of King Richard II, who was saved from killing a white deer, which in British legend is terribly bad luck.
You Can Indeed Judge a Book By Its Cover
Brian Gresko
November 20, 2013
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
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
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

Historical Examples of emblem

The plane in which we travelled bore the emblem of the World Patrol.
City of Endless Night
Milo Hastings
Forever it should be the emblem of crime and disaster beneath its shadow.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum
It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used by the old poets.
Storyology
Benjamin Taylor
Burned into his bare flesh was the emblem of their legendary sun-god.
Two Thousand Miles Below
Charles Willard Diffin
The worth of the thing signified must vindicate our taste for the emblem.
Essays, Second Series
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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).