Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as symbolic.

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

  • adjective of, related to, or being a symbol; symbolic
  • adjective of, related to, or being a emblem; emblematic

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

  • adjective relating to or using or proceeding by means of symbols
  • adjective serving as a visible symbol for something abstract

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He finds a great deal beyond sermons in stones, and can point out to you a certain piece of rather confused-looking architecture, which he terms a symbolical epitome of all knowledge, human and divine -- an eikonographic encyclopædia.

    The Book-Hunter A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author John Hill Burton

  • Heisenberg now considered the combination of all the oscillations of such a spectrum as one system, for the mathematical handling of which, he set out certain symbolical rules of calculation.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1932 and 1933 - Presentation Speech 1965

  • Heisenberg now considered the combination of all the oscillations of such a spectrum as one system, for the mathematical handling of which, he set out certain symbolical rules of calculation.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1932 and 1933 - Presentation Speech 1965

  • The wine cup was not literally given by Jeremiah to the representatives of the different nations; but only in symbolical vision.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • (besides this certain symbolical meaning, there is doubtless an accurate chronological meaning, which is as yet to us uncertain): it is half of "seven," the complete number, so a semi-perfect state, one of probation.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • Chalices which were formerly used for the offerings of wine made by the faithful, for the ornamentation of the altar, and at the administration of baptism, to give to the newly baptized a symbolical beverage composed of milk and honey, were not consecrated.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

  • In human nature sexual passion is fiercely individual and destructive, but dominated by the ideal of love, it has been made to flower into a perfection of beauty, becoming in its best expression symbolical of the spiritual truth in man which is his kinship of love with the Infinite.

    Creative Unity Rabindranath Tagore 1901

  • His influence when he preaches temperance to them on temperate lines may be all to the good, and except that, when he denounces tea also, because it is tainted with Western capitalism, he is waging war against a popular substitute for spirits, one need not quarrel with the solemn processions of mill-hands proceeding to a favourite shrine to break a symbolical teapot in the presence of the deity as a pledge of renunciation.

    India, Old and New Valentine Chirol 1890

  • Though the action is a pure invention, I recognise in this piece more historical and more of what we may call symbolical truth, than in most French tragedies.

    Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature August Wilhelm Schlegel 1806

  • This goes beyond terrorism but the lack of parental responsibility applies in all cases, even more so when we are talking about violence that is highly symbolical, that is infused with transcendent and political meanings, such as terrorist violence.

    Disorderly Francesca E S Montemaggi 2010

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