pictogram

Definition of pictogramnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pictogram Labels typically include warning pictograms and complex regulatory information in various formats. Jeanette Rohr, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025 America’s most popular airline routes (by Melvin Backman) SURPRISING DISCOVERIES Fifty years ago this weekend, scientists radioed a distant cluster of stars a pictogram using binary code. Melvin Backman, Quartz, 18 Nov. 2024 Akkadian was written in cuneiform, a system invented by the Sumerians that involves engraving pictograms and symbols into clay with a reed stylus. Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Aug. 2024 Nevertheless, Kurita’s pictograms bear little resemblance to modern emojis and were more akin to the Macintosh pictograms created by Susan Kare in 1984. Molly Peck, USA TODAY, 30 July 2024 See All Example Sentences for pictogram
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pictogram
Noun
  • As the years go on, the combinations of letters are only going to get longer.
    The Athletic NFL Staff, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2026
  • There are wooden crosses and paintings, flowers and candles and hundreds of messages and letters along the snowy sidewalk.
    Ray Sanchez, CNN Money, 8 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Initially used to track agricultural trade and taxes, early pictographs evolved into cuneiform—a sophisticated system of record-keeping.
    Solange Charas, Forbes.com, 31 July 2025
  • But before this, some of the brightest Chinese minds of the 20th century had to figure out a way to harness the complex pictographs that make up written Chinese into a typewriter, and later, a computer.
    Emily Feng, NPR, 5 July 2025
Noun
  • Go for a stroll on the water line at night or early morning and hopefully tracks will present themselves, flipper marks and a solid line for the shell, like hieroglyphs.
    Eric Barton, Sun Sentinel, 4 Jan. 2026
  • In the Nile Valley there are hieroglyphs galore that signify weather systems; and, being invisible and inexplicable, wind is denoted by its effect rather than its reality.
    Big Think, Big Think, 18 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • This erroneous belief that all Chinese characters are ideograms — symbols that express ideas directly, without language — remains widespread today in the West.
    Andrea Long Chu, Vulture, 6 May 2025
  • The encrusted object clearly qualified as cultural property, even more so when the treasure hunters cleaned it up, revealing that the shining chunk was actually an ingot stamped with Chinese ideograms.
    Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 22 July 2024
Noun
  • But the irony is, Roman numerals were actually introduced to make things easier to understand.
    The Athletic NFL Staff, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2026
  • This timepiece from Fossil features a rectangular face and Roman numerals for a supremely elegant look.
    John Monaco, InStyle, 7 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Finally, Marilyn is not presented as a cipher to be solved or quarry to be caged.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2026
  • The Blind Owl is extremely dense, brimming with metaphors and ciphers and symbols.
    Amir Ahmadi Arian, The Dial, 15 Jan. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Pictogram.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pictogram. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.

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