hieroglyph

Definitions

hiero (Greek hieros, sacred) + glyph (carving) = a sacred carving. The Egyptians cut these picture-symbols into temple and tomb walls, where one image could stand for a sound, a word, or a whole idea. Because they stayed unreadable until the Rosetta Stone, the word also means any baffling symbol.

Why It Means This

The leap from 'sacred Egyptian carving' to 'any unreadable symbol' came from frustration: for centuries Europeans could see hieroglyphs but couldn't read them, so the word soaked up a sense of mysterious illegibility. That's why we can call a doctor's scrawl 'a page of hieroglyphs.'

Common Collocations

• 1.Egyptian hieroglyph埃及象形文字
• 2.decode a hieroglyph破译象形文字
• 3.carved hieroglyphs刻出的象形文字
• 4.ancient hieroglyphs古老的象形文字

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Each hieroglyph could represent a sound, a word, or an idea.

• 2.

  Scholars finally decoded the hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone.

• 3.

  His notes looked like hieroglyphs that no one could read.

Easily Confused

hieroglyph vs hieroglyphic — hieroglyph is the noun for a single symbol or the symbols collectively; hieroglyphic is mainly the adjective (hieroglyphic writing) and can name the system. Use hieroglyph(s) for the marks themselves.