Hieroglyphic
[haɪrə'glɪfɪk] or [,haɪərə'glɪfɪk]
Definition
(adj.) written in or belonging to a writing system using pictorial symbols .
(adj.) resembling hieroglyphic writing .
Editor: Sasha--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) A sacred character; a character in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of symbols employed as syllables of a word, or as letters of the alphabet, having a certain sound, as a hawk represented the vowel a.
(a.) Any character or figure which has, or is supposed to have, a hidden or mysterious significance; hence, any unintelligible or illegible character or mark.
(a.) Alt. of Hieroglyphical
Inputed by Cole
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Emblematical, symbolical.
Typist: Shelby
Examples
- He tore off a strip of the blotting-paper and turned towards us the following hieroglyphic: GRAPHIC Cyril Overton was much excited. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- I tried the morning-room, and found him at laSt. There he was at the window, drawing hieroglyphics with his finger in the damp on the glass. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I looked with amazement at the absurd hieroglyphics upon the paper. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Here is a copy of the hieroglyphics: GRAPHIC Excellent! Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He took a pen upon the instant, and wrote the following note (in appropriate hieroglyphics) to his brother: Dear Jack,—All up at Coketown. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- But near the instep there is a small circular wafer of paper with the shopman's hieroglyphics upon it. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- These hieroglyphics have evidently a meaning. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The American civilizations had picture-writing of a primitive sort, but it never developed even to the pitch of the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphics. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Inputed by Lewis