icon

See also: iĉon

English

Alternative forms

• eikon, ikon (only in sense of religious image)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin icon, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.kən/
• IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.kɑːn/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

icon (plural icons)

A religious icon

1. An image, symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion.
2. (religion, especially Eastern Christianity) A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels.
3. A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.

   That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.

4. (computing) A small picture that represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function.)
5. (linguistics) A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons. See also symbol and index.

Synonyms

• (worshipped image): idol, graven image (pejorative)
• (exemplar): See Thesaurus:exemplar and Thesaurus:model

Derived terms

• aniconic, aniconism
• iconism

Related terms

• iconic
• iconoclasm, iconoclast, iconoclastic
• iconify
• iconography
• iconstasis

Translations

image

• Arabic: قُونَة f (qūna)
• Armenian: պատկեր (hy) (patker)
• Bulgarian: изображение (bg) n (izobraženie)
• Catalan: icona (ca) f
• Danish: ikon c
• Dutch: icoon (nl) f
• Esperanto: piktogramo
• Finnish: ikoni (fi), symboli (fi)
• French: icône (fr) f
• Galician: icona f
• German: Bild (de) n
• Greek: εικόνα (el) f (eikóna)
• Hungarian: ikon (hu)
• Irish: íocón m
• Italian: icona (it) f
• Maori: ata, ata iti
• Norman: icône f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: ikon m or n

• Polish: ikona (pl) f
• Portuguese: ícone (pt) m
• Russian: ико́на (ru) f (ikóna)
• Scottish Gaelic: ìomhaigh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: икона f

  Roman: ikona (sh) f

• Slovak: ikona (sk) f
• Slovene: ikona (sl) f
• Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m
• Swedish: ikon (sv) c, bild (sv) c
• Vietnamese: biểu tượng
• Yup'ik: ikuunaq

religious painting

• Albanian: ikona f
• Arabic: أَيْقُونَة f (ʔayqūna), إِيقُونَة f (ʔīqūna)
• Armenian: սրբապատկեր (hy) (srbapatker), պատկեր (hy) (patker)
• Asturian: iconu m
• Azerbaijani: ikona
• Bashkir: тәре (təre)
• Basque: ikono
• Belarusian: іко́на f (ikóna)
• Bulgarian: ико́на (bg) f (ikóna)
• Catalan: icona (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 聖像／圣像 (zh) (shèngxiàng), 圣像 (zh) (shèngxiàng)

• Czech: ikona (cs) f
• Danish: ikon c
• Dutch: icoon (nl) f
• Erzya: лик (ľik)
• Esperanto: ikono
• Estonian: ikoon
• Finnish: ikoni (fi)
• French: icône (fr) f
• Galician: icona f
• Georgian: ხატი (ka) (xaṭi)
• German: Ikone (de) f
• Greek: εικόνα (el) f (eikóna), εικόνισμα (el) n (eikónisma)
• Hebrew: איקונין (he) m (ikonín)
• Hungarian: ikon (hu)
• Indonesian: arca (id)
• Irish: íocón m
• Italian: icona (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 聖像 (せいぞう, seizō)
• Kazakh: икон (ikon), икона (ikona)
• Korean: 이콘 (ikon), 성상 (seongsang), 성화 (seonghwa)
• Kyrgyz: икона (ikona)
• Latin: icon (la) f
• Latvian: ikona f
• Lithuanian: ikona (lt) f
• Macedonian: икона f (ikona)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: ikon m or n

• Ossetian: иконӕ (ikonæ)
• Persian: تمثال (fa) (temsâl)
• Polish: ikona (pl) f
• Portuguese: ícone (pt) m, ídolo (pt) m
• Romanian: icoană (ro) f
• Russian: ико́на (ru) f (ikóna)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: икона f

  Roman: ikona (sh) f

• Slovak: ikona (sk) f
• Slovene: ikona (sl) f
• Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m
• Swedish: ikon (sv) c
• Thai: รูปเคารพ (rûup-kao-róp)
• Turkish: ikon (tr)
• Ukrainian: іко́на (uk) f (ikóna)
• Uzbek: ikona (uz)
• Yup'ik: ikuunaq

exemplar — see also exemplar,‎ patron saint

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偶像 (zh) (ǒuxiàng)

• Dutch: icoon (nl) f
• Finnish: symboli (fi), ikoni (fi)
• French: icône (fr) f
• German: Symbol (de) n
• Greek: πρότυπο (el) n (prótypo), είδωλο (el) n (eídolo)
• Italian: icona (it) f
• Japanese: 偶像 (ja) (ぐうぞう, gūzō)
• Korean: 우상 (ko) (usang)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: hautupia, hautupua
• Polish: ikona (pl) f, symbol (pl) m
• Portuguese: ícone (pt) m
• Russian: ико́на (ru) f (ikóna), и́дол (ru) m (ídol), куми́р (ru) m (kumír)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: икона f

  Roman: ikona (sh) f

• Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m
• Swedish: ikon (sv) c, förebild (sv) c
• Vietnamese: điển hình (vi)

small picture, computer icon

• Amharic: አዶ (ʾädo)
• Arabic: أَيْقُونَة f (ʔayqūna)
• Armenian: պատկերակ (patkerak)
• Bulgarian: икона (bg) f (ikona)
• Burmese: အိုင်ကွန် (uingkwan)
• Catalan: icona (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 圖標／图标 (túbiāo), 图标 (túbiāo)

• Czech: ikona (cs) f
• Dutch: icoon (nl) f or m, pictogram (nl) n
• Esperanto: piktogramo
• Finnish: kuvake (fi)
• French: icon (fr) m
• Galician: icona f
• German: Icon (de) n
• Greek: εικονίδιο (el) n (eikonídio)
• Hungarian: ikon (hu)
• Irish: íocón m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: icona (it) f
• Japanese: アイコン (ja) (aikon)
• Korean: 아이콘 (ko) (aikon)
• Maori: ata
• Norman: icône
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ikon (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: ikon m or n

• Polish: ikona (pl) f, ikonka f
• Portuguese: ícone (pt) m
• Romanian: iconiță (ro) f
• Russian: ико́нка (ru) f (ikónka), пиктогра́мма (ru) f (piktográmma), значо́к (ru) m (značók), карти́нка (ru) f (kartínka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: икона f, иконица f

  Roman: ikona (sh) f, ikonica f

• Spanish: icono (es) m, ícono (es) m
• Swedish: ikon (sv) c, symbol (sv) c
• Thai: ไอคอน, สัญรูป
• Uyghur: سىنبەلگە (sinbelge), ئايكون (aykon)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} icono
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• COIN, Coin, Nico, cion, coin, coni

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈiː.koːn/, [ˈiːkoːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈi.kon/, [ˈiːkon]

Noun

īcōn f (genitive īconis); third declension

1. an image
2. (later Latin): icon (religious painting)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	īcōn	īconēs
Genitive	īconis	īconum
Dative	īconī	īconibus
Accusative	īconem	īconēs
Ablative	īcone	īconibus
Vocative	īcōn	īconēs

Related terms

• īconicus
• īconismus

References

• “icon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• icon in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• icon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• icon in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016