hieroglyphic.
A writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds, often as a rebus.
Meaning & usage
A writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds, often as a rebus.
Any symbol used in this system; a hieroglyph.
Undecipherable handwriting or secret symbol.
Where this word comes from
First coined 1726, from French hiéroglyphique, from Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós), from ἱερογλυφέω (hierogluphéō, “to represent hieroglyphically”), from ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) + γλύφω (glúphō, “to carve, to engrave, to cut out”). By surface analysis, hiero- + glyphic.
Of, relating to, or written with such a system of symbols.
the hieroglyphic writing of ancient Egypt
a hieroglyphic obelisk
Difficult to decipher.
Where this word comes from
First coined 1726, from French hiéroglyphique, from Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós), from ἱερογλυφέω (hierogluphéō, “to represent hieroglyphically”), from ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) + γλύφω (glúphō, “to carve, to engrave, to cut out”). By surface analysis, hiero- + glyphic.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.