Editing Ideogram (section)

{{Short description|Symbol that represents an idea or concept}}
{{Use Oxford English|date=March 2024}}
{{Redirect2|Ideograph|Ideography|the rhetorical device|Ideograph (rhetoric)|ideographic dictionaries|Conceptual dictionary}}
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An '''ideogram''' or '''ideograph''' (from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{tlit|grc|idéa}} 'idea' + {{tlit|grc|gráphō}} 'to write') is a [[symbol]] that is used within a given [[writing system]] to represent an [[idea]] or concept in a given language.<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Hornby |first=Albert Sydney |editor-last=Cowie |editor-first=Anthony Paul |dictionary=Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary |date=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-431136-8 |page=616 |entry=ideograph}}</ref> (Ideograms are contrasted with [[phonogram (linguistics)|phonogram]]s, which indicate sounds of speech and thus are independent of any particular language.{{sfnp|Robertson|2004|pp=25–27, 38}}) Some ideograms are more arbitrary than others: some are only meaningful assuming preexisting familiarity with some convention; others more directly resemble their [[signified]]s. Ideograms that represent physical objects by visually illustrating them are called ''[[pictogram]]s''.{{sfnp|Robertson|2004|pp=25–27}}<ref name="EBpictography">{{Britannica|459568|pictography}}</ref>

* [[Numeral system|Numerals]] and [[List of mathematical symbols|mathematical symbols]] are ideograms, for example ⟨1⟩ 'one', ⟨2⟩ 'two', ⟨+⟩ 'plus', and ⟨=⟩ 'equals'.
* The [[ampersand]] ⟨&⟩ is used in many languages to represent the word ''and'', originally a stylized [[Ligature (writing)|ligature]] of the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|et}}.
* Other typographical examples include ⟨§⟩ 'section', ⟨€⟩ 'euro', ⟨£⟩ 'pound sterling', and ⟨©⟩ 'copyright'.