logogram

American  

[law-guh-gram, log-uh-] / ˈlɔ gəˌgræm, ˈlɒg ə- /

noun

1. Linguistics. a symbol that represents an entire word directly rather than representing a speech sound, such as a Chinese character.

2. a conventional, abbreviated symbol for a frequently recurring word or phrase, such as the symbol & for the word and.

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logogram British  

/ ˈlɒɡəˌɡrɑːf, -ˌɡræf, ˌlɒɡəˈɡræfɪk, ˌlɒɡəɡrəˈmætɪk, ˈlɒɡəˌɡræm /

noun

1. a single symbol representing an entire morpheme, word, or phrase, as for example the symbol (%) meaning per cent

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Other Word Forms

• logogrammatic adjective
• logogrammatically adverb

Etymology

Origin of logogram

First recorded in 1810–20; logo- + -gram ¹

Example Sentences

The final narrative ends with the legendary inventor of Chinese characters reflecting on his impoverished mother, whose figure — no longer begging for food — is forever preserved in his logograms.

From New York Times

But once he’s added delicate hind legs, spindly forelegs, and the muscular slopes of rump and neck, Traylor invariably arrives at something with the eerie singularity of a Sumerian logogram.

From New York Times

Later Sumerian cuneiform did become capable of rendering prose, but it did so by the messy system that I’ve already described, with mixtures of logograms, phonetic signs, and unpronounced determinatives totaling hundreds of separate signs.

From Literature

You also created some of the early alien logograms, which you inserted into the script and which inspired the ones used in the film.

From Los Angeles Times

All of the logograms were CG; the actors never saw them while shooting a scene.

From Los Angeles Times