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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

icon.

An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈaɪ.kɒn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈaɪ.kən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈaɪ.kɑn/General-American
  1. An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion.

  2. A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels.

    especially
  3. A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.

    broadly
    That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.
  4. A small picture that represents something.

    Click the loudspeaker icon to configure audio settings.
  5. A small picture that represents something. An image used to represent a user; an avatar or profile picture.

    Internet · informal
    Is it okay if I use your drawing as my icon?
  6. A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons.

Where this word comes from

From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

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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.