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n. 1. a. Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible: The lamb is a symbol of innocence. b. An instance that typifies a broader pattern or situation: His striking out to end the rally was a symbol of everything that had gone wrong with the team over the past month. 2. A printed or written sign used to represent an operation, element, quantity, quality, or relation, as in mathematics or music. 3. Psychology An object or image that an individual unconsciously uses to represent repressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses: a phallic symbol. [Middle English symbole, creed, from Old French, from Latin symbolum, token, mark, from Greek sumbolon, token for identification (by comparison with a counterpart) : sun-, syn- + ballein, to throw; see gwelə- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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