Glyph

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɡlɪf/

Definitions

1. A symbolic figure or character that represents an idea, sound, or object within a writing system or visual language
2. A carved or inscribed symbol used in writing or decoration that conveys meaning through shape or form
3. A graphic mark or emblem that serves as a unit of communication in alphabets, hieroglyphs, or computer fonts

Etymology: The Greek verb "glúphō" meant "I carve" or "I engrave," and its derived noun "gluphḗ" was simply "carving," the act or the result of cutting a shape into a hard surface. English took the word through French "glyphe" and first recorded it in 1727, when it referred to the carved marks of writing and decoration rather than to any abstract sign. That physical origin still shows. A glyph in the strict sense is a symbol cut into stone, wood or metal, and the term is most at home in discussions of ancient scripts such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, whose name combines Greek "hieros" (sacred) with this same "gluphḗ." The word's core idea, a mark made by cutting, remains intact even as it now covers any character or pictorial sign.

Synonyms: symbol, character, icon, mark