rebus
Americannoun
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rebuses
plural
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a representation of a word or phrase by pictures, symbols, etc., that suggest that word or phrase or its syllables.
Two gates and a head is a rebus for Gateshead.
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a piece of writing containing many such representations.
noun
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a puzzle consisting of pictures representing syllables and words; in such a puzzle the word hear might be represented by H followed by a picture of an ear
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a heraldic emblem or device that is a pictorial representation of or pun on the name of the bearer
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rebus
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin rēbus “by things” (ablative plural of rēs ), in phrase nōn verbīs sed rēbus “not by words but by things”
Explanation
A rebus is a puzzle that uses symbols or pictures to represent the sounds of words. A picture of an eye, a heart, and a ewe might be used to say "I love you." Isn't that sweet? A rebus uses pictures and symbols to convey a message in what may be considered a fun code. The letters ICU might be used to stand for the sentence “I see you.” The word rebus could be depicted with the letters RE followed by a picture of a school bus. Some children's books use rebuses as a way of introducing kids to the reading process, but rebuses can also be quite challenging, even for the adult mind.
Vocabulary lists containing rebus
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Challenge, List 4
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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.
See Examples For:
The effect of these lines, which reach back into the past while projecting far into the future, is that of a rebus, with the stunning phrase “the final whereabouts” offering one more breath of indirection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
A modern-day equivalent would be using a picture of an eye to represent “I” — a linguistic concept called the rebus principle.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2019
Slogans, drawings, GIFs, inspirational sentiments, little rebus puzzles—it’s really up to you.
From Slate ● Feb. 5, 2018
Follow Plautus’s famous injunction: modus omnibus in rebus.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2016
In San Antonio, Texas, the final contest was a fresh and very complicated rebus puzzle.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
I grew up doing crosswords, riddles and rebuses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2025
Photograph: Universal Images Group/Getty Images In essence, Griffiths had to crack an elaborate Tudor code of rebuses, ciphers, heraldic motifs and symbolic flowers to discover who the man was.
From The Guardian ● May 19, 2015
More complex rebuses are pictures whose elements, correctly named and put together, make up words or sentences.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was not by the Maya system, but by one of rebuses, that the old missionaries wrote what few books they composed for their unhappy Indian congregations.
From St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 8, May 1878, No. 7. An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks by Various
And the greatest pages of his autobiography, written with his brush, will be only so many childish rebuses if we forget what astounding pages of History and Argument were turned before him.
From Holbein by Beatrice Fortescue
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.
