pictograph

American  

[pik-tuh-graf, -grahf] / ˈpɪk təˌgræf, -ˌgrɑf /

noun

1. a pictorial sign or symbol.

2. a record consisting of pictorial symbols, as a prehistoric cave drawing or a graph or chart with symbolic figures representing a certain number of people, cars, factories, etc.

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pictograph British  

/ ˈpɪktəˌɡrɑːf, ˌpɪktəˈɡræfɪk, pɪkˈtɒɡrəfɪ, -ˌɡræf /

noun

1. a picture or symbol standing for a word or group of words, as in written Chinese

2. a chart on which symbols are used to represent values, such as population levels or consumption

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Other Word Forms

• pictographic adjective
• pictographically adverb
• pictography noun

Etymology

Origin of pictograph

1850–55; < Latin pict ( us ) painted ( picture ) + -o- + -graph

Example Sentences

Together, the roof and the tower give the chapel a beguiling silhouette that can suggest anything from a giant pictograph to an abstract sculpture.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

More specifically, because I read some signs, I can tell you that the petroglyphs are more than 2,000 years old, and also that a petroglyph is cut into stone; a pictograph is painted on stone.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2024

I’ve lost my appetite for cricket, so I tap on the pictograph of a lab-generated wrap produced from plant cells and lamb genes, then scan my hand.

From Slate • Feb. 26, 2022

The letter has no connection to the Chinese name “Xi,” which is a Latin-alphabet representation of a pictograph that is pronounced like the English feminine pronoun “she.”

From Washington Times • Dec. 10, 2021

These agree so closely with the pictograph and with the representation on the potsherd from Sikyatki, that I regard it well-nigh proven that they represent the same personage.

From Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 by Fewkes, Jesse Walter