Ideogram - wikipedia Ideogram This article is about the type of graphic symbol. For chromosome ideograms, see Cytogenetics. For the rhetorical device, see Ideograph ( rhetoric ). Writing systems History Grapheme List of writing systems Types Alphabet Abjad ( Impure Abjad ) Abugida Syllabary Semi-syllabary Logography Logophonetic ( Logosyllabary, Logoconsonantal ) Shorthand Featural Related topics Pictogram Ideogram An ideogram or ideograph ( from Greek ἰδέα idéa `` idea '' and γράφω gráphō `` to write '' ) is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. 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 pictograms. Contents 1 Terminology 2 Mathematics 3 Proposed universal languages 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Terminology Further information : Character ( symbol ) and Logogram `` No dogs allowed '' sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a pictogram. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of `` no '' or `` not allowed ''. Ideograms in the Church of the Visitation, Jerusalem In proto - writing, used for inventories and the like, physical objects are represented by stylized or conventionalized pictures, or pictograms. For example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation can not represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for reciting oral literature. Some systems also use ideograms, symbols denoting abstract concepts. The term `` ideogram '' is often used to describe symbols of writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese characters. However, these symbols are logograms, representing words or morphemes of a particular language rather than objects or concepts. In these writing systems, a variety of strategies were employed in the design of logographic symbols. Pictographic symbols depict the object referred to by the word, such as an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep `` ox ''. Some words denoting abstract concepts may be represented iconically, but most other words are represented using the rebus principle, borrowing a symbol for a similarly - sounding word. Later systems used selected symbols to represent the sounds of the language, for example the adaptation of the logogram for ʾālep `` ox '' as the letter aleph representing the initial sound of the word, a glottal stop. Many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. For example, the Akkadian sign AN ( 𒀭 ) could be an ideograph for `` deity '', an ideogram for the god Anum in particular, a logograph for the Akkadian stem il - `` deity '', a logograph for the Akkadian word šamu `` sky '', or a syllabogram for either the syllable an or il. Although Chinese characters are logograms, two of the smaller classes in the traditional classification are ideographic in origin : Simple ideographs ( 指 事 字 zhǐshìzì ) are abstract symbols such as 上 shàng `` up '' and 下 xià `` down '' or numerals such as 三 sān `` three ''. Semantic compounds ( 会意 字 huìyìzì ) are semantic combinations of characters, such as 明 míng `` bright '', composed of 日 rì `` sun '' and 月 yuè `` moon '', or 休 xiū `` rest '', composed of 人 rén `` person '' and 木 mù `` tree ''. In the light of the modern understanding of Old Chinese phonology, researchers now believe that most of the characters originally classified as semantic compounds have an at least partially phonetic nature. An example of ideograms is the collection of 50 signs developed in the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the US Department of Transportation. The system was initially used to mark airports and gradually became more widespread. Mathematics Mathematical symbols are a type of ideogram. Proposed universal languages See also : Pasigraphy Inspired by inaccurate early descriptions of Chinese and Japanese characters as ideograms, many Western thinkers have sought to design universal written languages, in which symbols denote concepts rather than words. An early proposal was An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language ( 1668 ) by John Wilkins. A recent example is the system of Blissymbols, which was proposed by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and currently includes over 2,000 symbols. See also Emoji Heterogram ( linguistics ) Icon ( computing ) Lexigram List of symbols List of writing systems ( including a sublist of ideographic systems ) Logotype Therblig Traffic sign References Jump up ^ Ramsey, S. Robert ( 1987 ). The Languages of China. Princeton University Press. p. 266. ISBN 978 - 0 - 691 - 01468 - 5. Jump up ^ Boltz, William ( 1994 ). The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system. American Oriental Society. pp. 67 -- 72, 149. ISBN 978 - 0 - 940490 - 78 - 9. Jump up ^ Symbols and signs, AIGA. Jump up ^ Rotman, Brian ( 2000 ). Mathematics as Sign : Writing, Imagining, Counting. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 3684 - 8. Jump up ^ Unger ( 2003 ), pp. 13 -- 16. DeFrancis, John. 1990. The Chinese Language : Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0 - 8248 - 1068 - 6 Hannas, William. C. 1997. Asia 's Orthographic Dilemma. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0 - 8248 - 1892 - X ( paperback ) ; ISBN 0 - 8248 - 1842 - 3 ( hardcover ) Unger, J. Marshall. 2003. Ideogram : Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning. ISBN 0 - 8248 - 2760 - 0 ( trade paperback ), ISBN 0 - 8248 - 2656 - 6 ( hardcover ) External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ideograms. The Ideographic Myth Extract from DeFrancis ' book. American Heritage Dictionary definition Merriam - Webster OnLine definition Links to related articles Visualization of technical information Fields Biological data visualization Chemical imaging Crime mapping Data visualization Educational visualization Flow visualization Geovisualization Information visualization Mathematical visualization Medical imaging Molecular graphics Product visualization Scientific visualization Software visualization Technical drawing User interface design Visual culture Volume visualization Image types Chart Diagram Engineering drawing Graph of a function Ideogram Map Photograph Pictogram Plot Schematic Skeletal formula Statistical graphics Table Technical drawings Technical illustration User interface People Jacques Bertin Stuart Card Thomas A. DeFanti Michael Friendly George Furnas Pat Hanrahan Nigel Holmes Christopher R. Johnson August Kekulé Manuel Lima Alan MacEachren Jock D. Mackinlay Michael Maltz Bruce H. McCormick Miriah Meyer Charles Joseph Minard Rudolf Modley Gaspard Monge Tamara Munzner Otto Neurath Florence Nightingale Hanspeter Pfister Clifford A. Pickover William Playfair Karl Wilhelm Pohlke Adolphe Quetelet George G. Robertson Arthur H. Robinson Lawrence J. Rosenblum Ben Shneiderman Fraser Stoddart Edward Tufte Fernanda Viégas Ade Olufeko Howard Wainer Martin Wattenberg Bang Wong Related topics Cartography Chartjunk Computer graphics in computer science Graph drawing Graphic design Graphic organizer Imaging science Information graphics Information science Mental visualisation Misleading graph Neuroimaging Patent drawing Scientific modelling Spatial analysis Visual analytics Visual perception Volume cartography Volume rendering Writing systems Index of language articles Overview History of writing History of the alphabet Graphemes Scripts in Unicode Lists Writing systems Languages by writing system / by first written account Undeciphered writing systems Inventors of writing systems Types Featural Alphabets Abjads Alphasyllabaries / Abugidas Syllabaries Semi-syllabaries Ideogrammic Pictographic Logographic Numeral Types of writing systems Overview History of writing Grapheme Lists Writing systems undeciphered inventors constructed Languages by writing system / by first written accounts Types Abjads Numerals Aramaic Hatran Arabic Egyptian hieroglyphs Pitman shorthand Hebrew Ashuri Cursive Rashi Solitreo Tifinagh Manichaean Nabataean Old North Arabian Pahlavi Pegon Phoenician Paleo - Hebrew Proto - Sinaitic Psalter Punic Samaritan South Arabian Zabur Musnad Sogdian Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā Serṭā Maḏnḥāyā Teeline Shorthand Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic Northern Asamiya ( Ôxômiya ) Bānglā Bhaikshuki Bhujinmol Brāhmī Devanāgarī Dogri Gujarati Gupta Gurmukhī Kaithi Kalinga Khojki Khotanese Khudawadi Laṇḍā Lepcha Limbu Mahajani Meitei Mayek Modi Multani Nāgarī Nandinagari Odia ' Phags - pa Newar Ranjana Sharada Saurashtra Siddhaṃ Soyombo Sylheti Nagari Takri Tibetan Uchen Umê Tirhuta Tocharian Zanabazar Square Zhang - Zhung Drusha Marchen Marchung Pungs - chen Pungs - chung Southern Ahom Balinese Batak Baybayin Bhattiprolu Buhid Burmese Chakma Cham Grantha Goykanadi Hanunó'o Javanese Kadamba Kannada Karen Kawi Khmer Kulitan Lanna Lao Leke Lontara Malayalam Maldivian Dhives Akuru Eveyla Akuru Thaana Mon Old Makassarese Old Sundanese Pallava Pyu Rejang Rencong Sinhala Sundanese Tagbanwa Tai Le Tai Tham Tai Viet Tamil Telugu Thai Tigalari Vatteluttu Kolezhuthu Malayanma Visayan Others Boyd 's syllabic shorthand Canadian syllabics Blackfoot Déné syllabics Fox I Ge'ez Gunjala Gondi Japanese Braille Jenticha Kayah Li Kharosthi Mandombe Masaram Gondi Meroitic Miao Mwangwego Sorang Sompeng Pahawh Hmong Thomas Natural Shorthand Warang Citi Alphabets Linear Abkhaz Adlam Armenian Avestan Avoiuli Bassa Vah Borama Carian Caucasian Albanian Coorgi -- Cox alphabet Coptic Cyrillic Deseret Duployan shorthand Chinook writing Early Cyrillic Eclectic shorthand Elbasan Etruscan Evenki Fox II Fraser Gabelsberger shorthand Garay Georgian Asomtavruli Nuskhuri Mkhedruli Glagolitic Gothic Gregg shorthand Greek Greco - Iberian alphabet Hangul Hanifi IPA Kaddare Klingon Latin Beneventan Blackletter Carolingian minuscule Fraktur Gaelic Insular Kurrent Merovingian Sigla Sütterlin Tironian notes Visigothic Luo Lycian Lydian Manchu Mandaic Medefaidrin Molodtsov Mongolian Mru Neo-Tifinagh New Tai Lue N'Ko Ogham Oirat Ol Chiki Old Hungarian Old Italic Old Permic Orkhon Old Uyghur Osage Osmanya Pau Cin Hau Runic Anglo - Saxon Cipher Dalecarlian Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Gothic Marcomannic Medieval Staveless Sidetic Shavian Somali Tifinagh Vagindra Visible Speech Vithkuqi Wancho Zaghawa Non-linear Braille Maritime flags Morse code New York Point Semaphore line Flag semaphore Moon type Ideograms / Pictograms Adinkra Aztec Blissymbol Dongba Ersu Shaba Emoji IConji Isotype Kaidā Míkmaq Mixtec New Epoch Notation Painting Nsibidi Ojibwe Hieroglyphs Siglas poveiras Testerian Yerkish Zapotec Logograms Chinese family of scripts Chinese Characters Simplified Traditional Oracle bone script Bronze Script Seal Script large small bird - worm Hanja Idu Kanji Chữ nôm Zhuang Chinese - influenced Jurchen Khitan large script Sui Tangut Cuneiform Akkadian Assyrian Elamite Hittite Luwian Sumerian Other logo - syllabic Anatolian Bagam Cretan Isthmian Maya Proto - Elamite Yi ( Classical ) Logo - consonantal Demotic Hieratic Hieroglyphs Numerals Hindu - Arabic Abjad Attic ( Greek ) Muisca Roman Semi-syllabaries Full Celtiberian Northeastern Iberian Southeastern Iberian Khom Redundant Espanca Pahawh Hmong Khitan small script Southwest Paleohispanic Zhuyin fuhao Somacheirograms ASLwrite SignWriting si5s Stokoe Notation Syllabaries Afaka Bamum Bété Byblos Cherokee Cypriot Cypro - Minoan Ditema tsa Dinoko Eskayan Geba Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics Iban Japanese Hiragana Katakana Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sogana Jindai moji Kikakui Kpelle Linear B Linear Elamite Lisu Loma Nüshu Nwagu Aneke script Old Persian Cuneiform Sumerian Vai Woleai Yi ( Modern ) Yugtun Braille ⠃ ⠗ ⠁ ⠊ ⠇ ⠇ ⠑ Braille cell 1829 braille International uniformity ASCII braille Unicode braille patterns Braille scripts French - ordered scripts ( see for more ) Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bharati Devanagari ( Hindi / Marathi / Nepali ) Bengali Punjabi Sinhalese Tamil Urdu etc. Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese ( Mandarin, mainland ) Czech Dutch Dzongkha ( Bhutanese ) English ( Unified English ) Esperanto Estonian Faroese French Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Guarani Hawaiian Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut ( reassigned vowels ) Iñupiaq IPA Irish Italian Kazakh Kyrgyz Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Mongolian Māori Navajo Nigerian Northern Sami Persian Philippine Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Samoan Scandinavian Slovak South African Spanish Tatar Taiwanese Mandarin ( largely reassigned ) Thai & Lao ( Japanese vowels ) Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Welsh Yugoslav Reordered scripts Algerian Braille ( obsolete ) Frequency - based scripts American Braille ( obsolete ) Independent scripts Japanese Korean Two - Cell Chinese Eight - dot scripts Luxembourgish Kanji Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 ) Symbols in braille Braille music Canadian currency marks Computer Braille Code Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 / GS6 ) International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) Nemeth braille code Braille technology Braille e-book Braille embosser Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Optical braille recognition Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Braigo Persons Louis Braille Charles Barbier Valentin Haüy Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind American Printing House for the Blind Other tactile alphabets Decapoint Moon type New York Point Night writing Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille Commons Portal Electronic writing systems Emoticons Emoji iConji Leet Unicode Internet slang dialects 3arabizi Alay ( Indonesia ) Denglisch Doge Fingilish ( Persian ) Greeklish Gyaru - 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Question: a language that used symbols to represent objects
Answer: pictograms