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symbolic

adjective

Simple meaning

Related to an arbitrary sign that has acquired a conventional significance.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sihmbahlik

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

sɪmˈbɑlɪk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Implicitly representing or referring to another thing.

  2. Pertaining to a symbol.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Implicitly representing or referring to another thing.

Used this way, symbolic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use symbolic

  • “The dove is often a symbolic representation of peace and hope.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relating

symbolic languagesymbolic meaning

Other combinations

symbolic representationsymbolic logicsymbolic valuesymbolic significancesymbolic ordersymbolic form

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • symbolismnounDerived noun

    A system of symbols and symbolic representations.

  • symbolicallyadverbDerived adverb

    In a symbolic manner.

  • symbolizeverbDerived verb

    Express indirectly by an image, form, or model.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • symbolic logiciannounCompound term

    A person skilled at symbolic logic.

  • symbolic logicnounCompound term

    Any logical system that abstracts the form of statements away from their content in order to establish abstract criteria of consistency and validity.

  • symbolic representationnounCompound term

    Something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.