Symbol

A symbol is something that represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity. The Template:Wiki of a symbol is to Template:Wiki meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for numbers. Personal names are symbols representing Template:Wiki. A red rose symbolizes Love and Compassion.

In cartography, an organized collection of symbols forms a legend.

The word derives from the Template:Wiki symbolon meaning token or watchword. It is an amalgam of syn- "together" + bole "a throwing, a casting, the stroke of a missile, bolt, beam." The sense Evolution in Template:Wiki is from "throwing things together" to "contrasting" to "comparing" to "token used in comparisons to determine if something is genuine." Hence, "outward sign" of something. The meaning "something which stands for something else" was first recorded 1590, in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. Template:R