ideographs
Meaning-based writing symbols
Ideographs are written symbols that represent ideas or concepts rather than sounds.
Chinese characters are the most familiar example—each character conveys meaning directly without spelling out pronunciation.
The term extends to any symbol that communicates visually: a heart means love, a skull means danger.
Ancient writing systems relied heavily on ideographs.
Chinese logographic symbols
- kanjiChinese symbols in Japanese
- radicalsAdvocates for fundamental change
- strokesGentle touches, swimming styles
- charactersPersons in a narrative
calligraphy · brush · ink · traditional · simplified · oracle bones · cursive script
Written words for performance
- orthographyStandard writing conventions
- charactersPersons in a narrative
- logogramsSymbols representing words
- pictogramsImages conveying meaning
notation · transcription · cuneiform · syllabary · manuscript · inscription · grapheme · logographic
Symbol using visual likeness
- logogramSymbol representing entire word
- glyphVisual form of character
- signMark conveying information
- iconPictorial screen symbol
emblem · representation · meaning · semantic · determinative · rebus · radical · classifier
Inscribed Shang divination remains
- Shang dynastyEarly Chinese ruling era
- proto-writingSymbols before script
- MinoanAncient Cretan civilization
- SumerianEarliest known civilization
Akkadian · Babylonian · Assyrian · clay tablets · Mesopotamia · stele · scribe · ziggurat
hanzi
Chinese logographic symbols
- kanjiChinese symbols in Japanese
- radicalsAdvocates for fundamental change
- strokesGentle touches, swimming styles
characters · calligraphy · brush · ink · traditional · simplified · oracle bones · cursive script
script
Written words for performance
- orthographyStandard writing conventions
- charactersPersons in a narrative
- logogramsSymbols representing words
pictograms · notation · transcription · cuneiform · syllabary · manuscript · inscription · grapheme · logographic · morpheme
pictogram
Symbol using visual likeness
icon · emblem · representation · meaning · semantic · determinative · rebus · radical · classifier
oracle bones
Inscribed Shang divination remains
- Shang dynastyEarly Chinese ruling era
- proto-writingSymbols before script
- MinoanAncient Cretan civilization
Sumerian · Akkadian · Babylonian · Assyrian · clay tablets · Mesopotamia · stele · scribe · ziggurat · Phoenician
hieroglyphics
Symbolic picture-based writing
- papyrusAncient plant-derived writing material
- Rosetta StoneDecree in three scripts
- cartoucheOval framing royal hieroglyphs
pharaohs · tombs · pyramids · obelisk · demotic · hieratic · Book of the Dead · ankh · scarab · inscriptions
- writing historyalphabet, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, hieroglyphs, scripts
- ancient writinghieroglyphs, cuneiform, papyrus, scroll, clay tablets
- Chinese writinghanzi, characters, character, radical, radicals
- scriptsalphabet, Latin alphabet, Roman alphabet, Greek alphabet, Hebrew alphabet
- Chinese charactersradical, hanzi, radicals, pictographs, determinative
- CJK writinghanzi, kanji, hiragana, katakana, radicals
ideographsphonograms
Symbols representing speech sounds
phonetic symbols · letters · phonemes · syllabaries · kana