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symbolic

[sim-bol-ik]

adjective

serving as a symbol of something (often followed by of).

of, pertaining to, or expressed by a symbol.

characterized by or involving the use of symbols: a highly symbolic poem.

(in semantics, especially formerly) pertaining to a class of words that express only relations. Compare notional (def. 7).

Computers. expressed in characters, usually nonnumeric, that require translation before they can be used (opposed to absolute).

Also, sym·bol·i·cal (for defs. 1–4).

Origin:
1650–60; < Late Latin symbolicus < Greek symbolikós. See symbol, -ic

Related forms

sym·bol·i·cal·ly, adverb

sym·bol·i·cal·ness, noun

non·sym·bol·ic, adjective

non·sym·bol·i·cal, adjective

non·sym·bol·i·cal·ly, adverb

EXPAND

non·sym·bol·i·cal·ness, noun

un·sym·bol·ic, adjective

un·sym·bol·i·cal, adjective

un·sym·bol·i·cal·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To symbolic

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Symbolic is always a great word to know.

So is application. Does it mean:

a microprogram stored in ROM, designed to implement a function that had previously been provided in software

a type of job or problem that lends itself to processing or solution by computer

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Example Sentences

Since it was devoid of symbolic importance, he explained, it would not become a political time bomb.

Everything about the poem is charged with symbolic resonance.

The blow to the guerrillas is both symbolic and operational.

EXPAND

Since it was devoid of symbolic importance, he explained, it would not become a political time bomb.

Everything about the poem is charged with symbolic resonance.

The blow to the guerrillas is both symbolic and operational.

Memorials can include explicit or symbolic physical features.

The reality of moves in that state are largely symbolic.

Oak trees have a long symbolic history within the military.

Having authored books about the symbolic use of color in different cultures, they decided to bring their research home.

It's a symbolic declaration that physical photographs are dead and should literally be buried.

On the symbolic end, officials think they should be able to control property that the city clearly and legally owns.

Let's consider the symbolic weight of this particular pie as well as the general weight of seemingly meaningless acts of protest.

But sometimes it is easy to understand why points on the chart can have symbolic significance.

Show three or four images with culturally important symbolic meaning.

The evolution of hairlessness helped to set the stage for the emergence of large brains and symbolic thought.

My tattoos are symbolic of my own independence and self-expression, and they weren't done for anyone but me.

But his cut seems to be more of a symbolic move than anything else.

As blacks have made greater symbolic strides, pity has turned into resentment and projected fear.

Conciseness, even to the point of symbolic notation, is a virtue.

The draft mixes grand symbolic gestures with smaller, concrete measures.

America's immediate resolve to repair and rebuild, yet also to remember, is symbolic of that.

Her research made advances in symbolic computation and algebraic algorithms, including ideas that can be used in cryptography.

Neither is important in himself, but both are symbolic of how events turned out.

It also seems symbolic of the playful investigation offered by personalized genomics companies.

Within complex bureaucracies, symbolic politics all too often backfire.

It was both a symbolic casting off the colonial yoke and a not-to-subtle reminder that they were here first.

Now a new study says the structure was linked to the summer solstice-and may have been a symbolic shield against darkness.

All the while, these playable scenarios had to retain some symbolic value about evolution.

The huipil is intricately embroidered with symbolic designs.

Putin was an incremental one, it was highly symbolic.

Its significance, however, is much more symbolic than practical.

Villagers held symbolic funerals, laying wreaths on the water.

Symbolic messages on a cave wall would however suggest the ability to produce symbolic communication.

Even though the fax is delivered as bits before it is rendered as an image on paper, those bits have no symbolic value.

To give symbolic parity, a similar number of government soldiers and guns will be confined.

Symbolic figures and characters-including the god of the underworld, a scribe, and another artisan-adorn four sides of the box.

Ultimately all that fake symbolic wealth has to rest on something real.

But as the ceremony today shows, the probe's symbolic importance perhaps rivals its scientific value.

Even if the referendum itself will do little, the vote was of huge symbolic importance.

The end result may carry some symbolic meanings, but they're not necessarily there in all cases.

But the decision may be more symbolic than anything else.

The interactive quest, a symbolic journey in search of a grail, is the dominant genre in cyberspace.

The crimes in its ambit are too many and various for more than symbolic justice to be seen to be done.

The movement is a symbolic gesture in support of action against global warming.

Neither party intends to inflict serious damage, and both partners typically seem to enjoy the symbolic exchange.

They are then banished to a symbolic death within the living world.

But you don't need symbolic facilities to encourage them to ride.

They were also engraving some artifacts with symbolic marks.

Over the years, it has become a symbolic stage upon which the nation's insecurities and fears.

In parliamentary terms censure is a symbolic gesture.

Besides the first seafood dinner, signs of the earliest symbolic thought.

The bulky microphone soon took on a symbolic role, signifying the urgency and excitement of radio itself.

The first is that the tax holiday is a relatively cheap symbolic gesture that makes truly bad policies less likely.

The places where water can be found are sacred, symbolic of the mythic stories that.

The bought firm's bosses may be asked to linger in well-paid but largely symbolic roles.

Voodoo spirits are not distant, nor are they abstractions or symbolic constructs.

But the ideas, the imagination are triggering the century compiled collective knowledge and power in this symbolic language.

Symbolic action on the deficit isn't good economic policy.

The officers be given both symbolic and actual resources to accomplish their goals.

One symbolic character refers to the box as his house.

The scroll bar's disappearance is symbolic of a larger shift:.

Thus cats have become symbolic of a community eschewed and a hyper-engagement with oneself.

Let's think about the protest in terms of its symbolic weight:.

Cash-strapped companies are making more use of symbolic rewards.

The problem is the presumptions and context that is never directly said but is part and parcel in symbolic communication.

That's got to be ominously symbolic of something-or-other.

He may make changes ranging from the simple, such as changing locks, to the symbolic.

Inevitably, he saw barns and stables and farms in a symbolic light.

Till now it had been almost symbolic acts of removing the bandits from some places in the core area of the city.

Some anthropologists have suggested that even the earliest shoes may have served a more symbolic than protective function.

Why these capabilities would be more than symbolic in the face of a non-existent threat went unexplored.

The white ribbons, symbolic of the city's grief, are beginning to fray.

The refuelling mission is more symbolic than practical.

The stories function more on a symbolic level, and that's why people key into them.

In this season symbolic of peace and good-will all over the world, there are to be heard more discordant notes than usual.

Brenzel's symbolic but ultimatey inadequte decision to reduce the number of misleading packets he sends out is interesting.

He suicided in a quite symbolic manner by a bite from a poisoned apple.

It's a symbolic tournament that tests competing political and economic systems to their limit.

The imagery promises the beef and chicken specialties within, but it is also strangely symbolic of my life.

Its importance to speech heightens the symbolic force intended.

People may say they care more but they don't beyond a few symbolic acts.

Podesta also understands the symbolic importance of well-timed and even-handed giving.

Rather, it is the intensity of the emotions and the symbolic issues underlying the relationships among the three generations.

The combination of this special script and a symbolic universe makes magic a reality for those who believe in.

But because of bags' visibility, their symbolic importance is huge.

Warmus said that visitors to the exhibition are meant to ponder the symbolic value of the drinking vessel first:.

But agreed there are many forms of logic and as you posted, math is based on symbolic logic among other forms.

The practical impact of either bill has been overshadowed by the symbolic and political importance of the legislative struggle.

In the illusion, the woman's breasts are also the bison's nostrils, together symbolic of the source/breath of life.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

symbolic or symbolical (sɪmˈbɒlɪk)

—*adj*
1.	of or relating to a symbol or symbols
2.	serving as a symbol
3.	characterized by the use of symbols or symbolism

symbolical or symbolical

—*adj*

sym'bolically or symbolical

—*adv*

sym'bolicalness or symbolical

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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"The symbolic view of things is a consequence of long absorption in images. Is sign language the real language of Paradise?"

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