Jump to content

symbolic

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From French symbolique or directly from Latin symbolicus, from Ancient Greek συμβολικός (sumbolikós, “of or belonging to a symbol”), equivalent to symbol +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Hyphenation: sym‧bo‧lic
  • Rhymes: -ɒlɪk

Adjective

[edit]

symbolic (comparative more symbolic, superlative most symbolic)

  1. Pertaining to a symbol.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[1], volume 189, number 3, archived from the original on 5 December 2019, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
  2. Implicitly representing or referring to another thing.
    a symbolic gesture
    • 2023 June 17, Tom Perkins, “‘A sense of betrayal’: liberal dismay as Muslim-led US city bans Pride flags”, in The Guardian‎[2], archived from the original on 10 August 2023:
      They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign.
    • 2026 January 1, Max Pilley, “MTV shuts down final music-only channels with ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’”, in NME‎[3]:
      As a sign-off, they played the video for 1979 new wave classic, a symbolic choice at it was also the first video that MTV ever aired when it launched in the US in 1981.

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]
terms related to symbolic (adjective)

Translations

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=symbolic&oldid=90034607"