avatar

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The incarnation of a Hindu deity, especially Vishnu, in human or animal form.
• noun An embodiment or manifestation, as of a quality or concept.
• noun A temporary manifestation or aspect of a continuing entity.
• noun An icon, graphic, or other image by which a person represents himself or herself on a communications network or in a virtual community, such as a chatroom or multiplayer game.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In Hindu myth., the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.
• noun Hence A remarkable appearance, manifestation, or embodiment of any kind; a descent into a lower sphere; an adorable or wonderful exhibition of an abstract idea, principle, etc., in concrete form: as, “The Irish Avatar” (a poem by Byron on a visit of George IV. to Ireland); “the avatar of mathematics,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Hindu Myth.) The descent of a deity to earth, and his incarnation as a man or an animal; -- chiefly associated with the incarnations of Vishnu.
• noun An incarnation, embodiment or personification of a principle, quality, or attitude; -- used of people, mostly in a positive sense as a manifestation of a behavior or character worthy of admiration.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun In Hinduism the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
• noun The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification.
• noun A digital representation or handle of a person or being; often, it can take on any of various forms, as a participant chooses. i.e. 3D, animated, photo, sketch

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a new personification of a familiar idea
• noun the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in human or superhuman or animal form