symbolic

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sym‧bo‧lic
• Rhymes: -ɒlɪk

Adjective

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, volume 189, number 3, 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

Derived terms

• antisymbolic
• asymbolic
• Blissard's symbolic method
• concolic
• multisymbolic
• nonsymbolic
• postsymbolic
• presymbolic
• shambolic
• sociosymbolic
• sound-symbolic
• subsymbolic
• symblematic
• symbolical
• symbolically
• symbolicate
• symbolic constant
• symbolic expression
• symbolicism
• symbolic language
• symbolic link
• symbolic logic
• symbolicness
• symbolics
• symbolic speech
• unsymbolic

 

Related terms

terms related to symbolic (adjective)

• symbol
• symbolist
• symbology
• symbolistic
• symbolization, symbolisation
• symbolize, symbolise
• symbolism

Translations

pertaining to a symbol

• Armenian: խորհրդանշական (hy) (xorhrdanšakan)
• Bengali: সাংকেতিক (bn) (śaṅketik), প্রতীকী (bn) (protiki)
• Bulgarian: символичен (bg) (simvoličen)
• Catalan: simbòlic (ca)
• Czech: symbolický
• Dutch: symbolisch (nl)
• Esperanto: simbola
• Estonian: sümboolne
• Finnish: symbolinen (fi)
• French: symbolique (fr)
• Galician: simbólico m
• German: symbolisch (de)
• Hebrew: סמלי (simlí), סמלית (simlít)
• Kazakh: таңбалық (tañbalyq), символдық (simvoldyq), символикалық (simvolikalyq)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sembolîk (ku), remzî (ku)

• Latvian: simbolisks
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: symbolsk

  Nynorsk symbolsk

• Polish: symboliczny (pl)
• Portuguese: simbólico (pt) m, simbólico (pt)
• Romanian: simbolic (ro)
• Russian: символи́ческий (ru) (simvolíčeskij)
• Scottish Gaelic: samhlachail
• Spanish: simbólico (es)
• Ukrainian: символі́чний (symvolíčnyj)
• Yiddish: סימבאָליש (simbolish)

implicitly referring to another thing

• Albanian: simbolik (sq)
• Armenian: խորհրդանշական (hy) (xorhrdanšakan)
• Asturian: simbólicu
• Bengali: সাংকেতিক (bn) (śaṅketik), প্রতীকী (bn) (protiki)
• Bulgarian: символичен (bg) (simvoličen)
• Catalan: simbòlic (ca)
• Estonian: tähistav
• Finnish: vertauskuvallinen (fi)
• French: symbolique (fr)
• German: symbolisch (de), symbolträchtig
• Hebrew: סמלי m (simlí), סמלית f (simlít), סימבולי m (simbóli), סימבולית f (simbólit)
• Hungarian: jelképes (hu), szimbolikus (hu)
• Latvian: simbolisks
• Lithuanian: simbòliškas, simbòlinis (lt)
• Malayalam: പ്രതീകാത്മക (pratīkātmaka)
• Portuguese: simbólico (pt)
• Romanian: simbolic (ro)
• Scottish Gaelic: samhlachail
• Serbo-Croatian: simbòličan (sh)
• Slovene: simbóličen (sl)
• Spanish: simbólico (es)
• Ukrainian: символі́чний (symvolíčnyj)
• Yiddish: סימבאָליש (simbolish)