ideograph
Americannoun
-
Rhetoric. an ordinary language term that, within a particular ideology, has developed a loose, flexible, nonspecific use that stands for values and ideas present within that ideology, rather than having a specific, concrete meaning.
In the training materials,
is used as an ideograph to reinforce the military hierarchy.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ideograph
Explanation
A symbol that represents an idea or a thing, rather than the sounds of a word, is called an ideograph. A smiley face emoji is an ideograph that represents happiness. Many street signs are ideographs, meant to convey a specific meaning without using any words. "Pedestrian crossing" might be a graphic representation of people walking, and "No smoking" is usually a picture of a cigarette inside a circle with a line through it. Hieroglyphics and cuneiform are mainly ideographs, and so are mathematical symbols and emoji. Ideograph combines the Latin idea with graph, "instrument for writing."
Vocabulary lists containing ideograph
East Asia - Middle School
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East Asia - Introductory
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East Asia - High School
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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.
So very early on, it was very obvious in “The Lion King” that the circle is the ideograph: The Circle of Life.
From New York Times • Nov. 16, 2022
The way I do drought is it’s a big circle of fabric, and the drought is symbolized by the most simple, reduced ideograph of pulling that circle through the floor hole.
From New York Times • Nov. 16, 2022
I looked for what I call an ideograph, which is to take the entire concept of the story—a road movie, what is that?
From Slate • Sep. 30, 2020
Investigators found there incendiary bomb fragments with Japanese ideograph markings.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the brush drawings it looks like the ideograph for “human,” two black wings.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
