SINCE 1828
ideogram
noun
ideo·gram
| \ ˈi-dē-ə-ˌgram
, ˈī-\
, ˈī-\
Definition of ideogram
1
: a picture or symbol used in a system of writing to represent a thing or an idea but not a particular word or phrase for it
especially
: one that represents not the object pictured but some thing or idea that the object pictured is supposed to suggest
2
: logogram
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Other Words from ideogram
ideogramic
or ideogrammic \ ˌi-dē-ə-ˈgra-mik
, ˌī- \
adjective
, ˌī- \
adjective
ideogrammatic
\ ˌi-dē-ō-grə-ˈma-tik
, ˌī- \
adjective
, ˌī- \
adjective
Examples of ideogram in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Emojis might be connected in some respects to Egyptian hieroglyphs or Chinese ideograms. — Crispin Sartwell, WSJ, "Texting and Twitter Make This a Golden Age for the Written Word," 22 Sep. 2017 The emoji is heir to a tradition of pictographic writing stretching back millennia to Egyptian hieroglyphics and the ideograms used to write Chinese and Japanese. — Washington Post, "AP Interview: Japan’s emoji creator saw nuance in pictures," 21 Sep. 2017 There, Chinese kites shaped like Buzz Lightyear and Slinky Dog hung from the ceiling; Chinese ideograms identified the different kinds of pastry. — Julie Lasky, New York Times, "At Shanghai Disney Resort, Mulan, Mickey and Dumplings," 4 July 2017 Of getting lost in who people think you are!’ A prizefighter’s journey is an existentialist ideogram for life, and the real fight, the real fifteen rounds, occurs in the heart, at home. — Tad Friend, The New Yorker, "Liev Schreiber Finds the Heart of Chuck Wepner," 22 May 2017 No, not changing in a way that means the language is abandoning the alphabet and regressing back to ideograms— — Nick Stockton, WIRED, "Emoji—Trendy Slang or a Whole New Language?," 24 June 2015These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ideogram.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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