Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships.
- n. A system of symbols or representations.
- n. A symbolic meaning or representation.
- n. Revelation or suggestion of intangible conditions or truths by artistic invention.
- n. The movement, theory, or practice of the late 19th-century Symbolists.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The investing of things with a symbolic meaning or character; the use of symbols.
- n. Symbolic character.
- n. An exposition or comparison of symbols or creeds.
- n. [capitalized] The theories and practice of the Symbolist School. See Symbolist, n., 2.
- n. An abnormal mental state in which every occurrence is interpreted as a symbol of the subject's own sensations and thoughts.
Wiktionary
- n. Representation of a concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or qualities.
- n. obsolete A combining together of parts or ingredients.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of symbolizing, or the state of being symbolized.
- n. A system of symbols or representations.
- n. obsolete, obsolete The practice of using symbols, or the system of notation developed thereby.
- n. obsolete A combining together of parts or ingredients.
- n. (Theol.) The science of creeds; symbolics.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a system of symbols and symbolic representations
- n. the practice of investing things with symbolic meaning
- n. an artistic movement in the late 19th century that tried to express abstract or mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images
Etymologies
- Coined between 1645 and 1655 from symbol and -ism. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“But we now arrive at a higher division of masonic symbolism, which, passing beyond these tangible symbols, brings us to those which are of a more abstruse nature, and which, as being developed in a ceremonial form, controlled and directed by the ritual of the order, may be designated as the _ritualistic symbolism_ of Freemasonry.”
“The name symbolism is also entirely French, referring to Mlle.”
“Still, the term symbolism did not catch on in Germany as a name for any specific poetic group, though Hofmannsthal, e.g., in “Das Gespräch über Gedichte” (1903), pro - claimed the symbol the one element necessary in po - etry.”
“However, ornamental and architectural forms frequently do convey a meaning, which we term symbolism in art.”
“In these remarks translated from Portuguese, the Brazilian leader referred to what she described as the symbolism of the first meeting between Brazil's first female president, and the first African-American president of the United States.”
Voice of America: Obama in Brazil, But Libyan Concerns at Forefront
“Bradford: Eric and I have argued that the symbolism is the consequence of assignment.”
“Eric and I have argued that the symbolism is the consequence of assignment.”
“But they forget the Oriental influence in the Greek Orthodox Church; this symbolism is a way of representing abstract ideas by images.”
“There is a certain symbolism to the collaboration.”
The Huffington Post: Conway Leads 200+ Candidates In Demanding No Cuts To Social Security
“We were swept up in symbolism; stunts were controlling events.”
The Huffington Post: Mike Signer: Stop the Madness: The New Politics of Stunts
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘symbolism’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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Terms for AP Lit
This list is designed to be a reference for my AP Lit. students
metonymy, synecdoche, metaphor, simile, litotes, satire, irony, sarcasm, invective, bathos, broadside, characterization and 28 more...
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Eggy Baboon
My Favorite Words
transmigration, confluence, protomorphic, symbolism, conundrum, humdrum
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Collagency ✂
Comparing images, cut-up, and mixing meaning.
clusterfuck, fungible, juxtaposition, assemblage, cut, paste, arrangement, theme, symbolism, association, amalgam, represtational and 110 more...
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Words That Populate My Mind
This is a collection of words I love, old ones that I love the sound of when I repeat them for years and new ones coined in news articles on up and coming trends and technologies - most of them I k...
aroma, mojo, blithely, fringe, fray, synchronicity, doublespeak, buzzword, thoughtcrime, portmanteau, newspeak, oldspeak and 963 more...
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a few of my favorite words
these are some of my favorite words...
brilliant, delicious, lovely, ever, with, present, here, light, radiant, bright, beauty, live and 209 more...
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Diversified Obsessions
calendars, running, music, men, friends, motherhood, art, food, solitude, connection, drama, humor and 117 more...
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ivomortani's Words
solitude, sanctuary, life, dawn, flourish, caress, utopia, fecund, prolific, saviour, design, belief and 100 more...
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Art movement-isms
impressionism, expressionism, abstract-expressi..., german expressionism, symbolism, minimalism, futurism, classicism, neo-classicism, mannerism, vorticism, dadaism and 15 more...
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SAT Literary Terms
allegory, allusion, ambiguity, anecdote, apostrophe, autobiography, biography, characterization, climax, comedy, conclusion, conflict and 37 more...
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litcrit & theory
gurlesque, new criticism, marxism, psychoanalytic, postcolonialism, existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, surrealism, dadaism, post-structuralism, structuralism and 77 more...
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Offensive to the Mind
post-punk, post-rock, postmodern, web 2.0, deconstruct, connotation, symbolism, theme, didacticism, bathos, lol, literature and 3 more...
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Intellectual Ammunition
paradox, sine qua non, paradigm, discourse, ideology, precursor, emergent, imperialist, neo-colonialism, hegemony, unipolar, democratization and 60 more...
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Is that a cigar in your pocket. . .?
Or are you just Freudian?
psychoanalysis, talking cure, unconscious, consciousness, repression, denial, displacement, psychosomatic, free association, sublimation, oral stage, anal stage and 32 more...
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Joseph Conrad
key terms relating to his life and as found in his works.
exile, orphan, duality, seaman, complex, darkness, material interest, modernism, impressionism, symbolism, lyricism, chinese box and 63 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for symbolism.
PossibleUnderscore It said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said. Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation and the universe has taken millions of years to create it.
-The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho Jul 27, 2009