symbolic meaning
What it represents
Symbolic meaning is what something represents beyond its literal sense.
A rose has symbolic meaning as love or passion; a skull carries symbolic meaning as death or danger.
The phrase often appears in literary and artistic analysis: The white whale's symbolic meaning has occupied scholars for generations.
Objects, colors, gestures, and narratives all carry symbolic meaning shaped by culture and context.
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- visual metaphorConcept shown through imagery
- literary deviceStorytelling method or structure
- archetypeOriginal model for copies
representation · iconography · sacred imagery · mythology · semiotics · signifier · subconscious · collective unconscious · dream interpretation · ritual · emblem · totem · spirit animal · cipher · connotation · deeper · folklore · polysemy
- humanitiesphilosophy, history, literature, philosophy class, novels
- literary analysisliterary analysis, character analysis, book review, plot, critical analysis
- literary devicesmetaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, alliteration
- figurative languagemetaphor, simile, figure of speech, analogy, personification
- literary themesheroism, hero's journey, ennui, social realism, morals
- psyche and cultureunconscious, collective unconscious, archetypes, symbols, ego
symbolic meaningliteral meaning
Exact, non-figurative interpretation
literal interpretation · literal sense · literal reading · face value · plain meaning