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Symbol   /sˈɪmbəl/   Listen
noun
Symbol  n.  
1.
A visible sign or representation of an idea; anything which suggests an idea or quality, or another thing, as by resemblance or by convention; an emblem; a representation; a type; a figure; as, the lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or patience. "A symbol is a sign included in the idea which it represents, e. g., an actual part chosen to represent the whole, or a lower form or species used as the representative of a higher in the same kind."
2.
(Math.) Any character used to represent a quantity, an operation, a relation, or an abbreviation. Note: In crystallography, the symbol of a plane is the numerical expression which defines its position relatively to the assumed axes.
3.
(Theol.) An abstract or compendium of faith or doctrine; a creed, or a summary of the articles of religion.
4.
That which is thrown into a common fund; hence, an appointed or accustomed duty. (Obs.) "They do their work in the days of peace... and come to pay their symbol in a war or in a plague."
5.
Share; allotment. (Obs.) "The persons who are to be judged... shall all appear to receive their symbol."
6.
(Chem.) An abbreviation standing for the name of an element and consisting of the initial letter of the Latin or New Latin name, or sometimes of the initial letter with a following one; as, C for carbon, Na for sodium (Natrium), Fe for iron (Ferrum), Sn for tin (Stannum), Sb for antimony (Stibium), etc. See the list of names and symbols under Element. Note: In pure and organic chemistry there are symbols not only for the elements, but also for their grouping in formulas, radicals, or residues, as evidenced by their composition, reactions, synthesis, etc. See the diagram of Benzene nucleus, under Benzene.
Synonyms: Emblem; figure; type. See Emblem.



verb
Symbol  v. t.  To symbolize. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Symbol" Quotes from Famous Books



... the Italian coast. His body was washed ashore several days later, and was cremated, near Viareggio, by his friends, Byron, Hunt, and Trelawney. His ashes might, with all reverence, have been given to the winds that he loved and that were a symbol of his restless spirit; instead, they found a resting place near the grave of Keats, in the English cemetery at Rome. One rarely visits the spot now without finding English and American visitors standing in silence before the significant ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... universal experience of man. The poem was to be an allegory, and in making himself its protagonist Dante assumed a double part. He represents both the individual Dante, the actual man, and that man as the symbol of man in general. His description of his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise has a literal veracity; and under the letter is the allegory of the conduct and consequences of all human life. The literal meaning and the allegorical are the web and woof of the fabric, in which the ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern -- Volume 11 • Various

... to understand what the scope of the religion of Dionysus was to the Greeks who lived in it, all it represented to them by way of one clearly conceived yet complex symbol, let him reflect what the loss would be if all the effect and expression drawn from the imagery of the vine and the cup fell out of the whole body of existing poetry; how many fascinating trains of reflexion, what colour and substance would therewith have been deducted from ...
— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater

... diverted himself a while with my surprise and disappointment, then informed me, that the rose had ever been regarded in Morosofia, as the symbol of female purity, delicacy, and sweetness; which notion had grown into a popular superstition, that whenever a marriage is consummated on the earth, one of these flowers springs up in the moon; and that in colour, shape, size, or other property, it is a fit type of the individual ...
— A Voyage to the Moon • George Tucker

... mighty and strange, ye ancient divine ones of Hellas! Are ye Christian too? To convert and redeem and renew you, Will the brief form have sufficed, that a Pope has sat up on the apex Of the Egyptian stone that o'ertops you, the Christian symbol? And ye, silent, supreme in serene and victorious marble, Ye that encircle the walls of the stately Vatican chambers, Are ye also baptized; are ye of the Kingdom of Heaven? Utter, O some one, the word that shall ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds


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