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Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame *Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century 1838] ==Definitions== *1 : a picture or symbol used in a...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Ideograexpl.jpg|right|frame]]

*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century 1838]
==Definitions==
*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
==Description==
An ideogram or '''ideograph''' (from [[Greek]] ἰδέα idea "[[idea]]" + γράφω grafo "to [[write]]") is a graphic [[symbol]] that [[represents]] an [[idea]] or [[concept]]. Some ideograms are [[comprehensible]] only by familiarity with prior [[convention]]; others convey their [[meaning]] through pictorial resemblance to a [[physical]] object, and thus may also be referred to as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictogram pictograms].

Examples of ideograms include [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayfinding wayfinding] signs, such as in airports and other [[environments]] where many people may not be familiar with the [[language]] of the place they are in, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numeral Arabic numerals] and [[formal]] [[languages]], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_notation mathematical notation], [[logic]], UML), which are used worldwide regardless of how they are pronounced in [[different]] [[languages]]. Other examples include the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blissymbols Blissymbols], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsibidi Nsibidi], used by the Igbo and Ekpe in West Africa, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon Emoticons] and pictographs as used by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux Sioux] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwa Ojibwa].
==Terminology==
The term "ideogram" is commonly used to describe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram logographs] in [[writing]] [[systems]] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_cuneiform Sumerian cuneiform] and (incorrectly) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character Chinese characters].

In the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing history of writing] [[symbols]] proceeded from ideographic (e.g. an icon of a bull's head in a list inventory, denoting that the following numeral refers to head of cattle) to logographic (an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep "ox"), to phonetic (the bull's head used as a symbol in rebus writing, indicating the glottal stop at the beginning of the word for "ox", viz. the letter Aleph). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age_writing Bronze Age] writing systems used a combination of these applications, and many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. For example, the Akkadian sign [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingir AN] (𒀭) could be an ideograph for "[[deity]]", an ideogram for the god [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_(mythology) Anum] in particular, a logograph for the Akkadian stem il- "deity", a logograph for the Akkadian word šamu "sky", or a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabogram syllabogram] for either the syllable an or il.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideographic]

[[Category: Languages and Literature]]

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