symbolism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Representation of a concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or qualities.

   The undeveloped or mysterically confused thought which exists in savages is fully exemplified in the childish or crazy atavistic anthropomorphism and symbolism so prevalent among degenerates.

2. 2
   noun

   An art movement originating in late 19th-century France and Belgium, seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism.

   The cross-fertilization of Elizabethan drama with French symbolism gave rise to the "Princess Maleine", a new species if there ever was one, Shakespearean in form and incident, most un-Shakespearean in everything else.

3. 3
   noun

   the practice of investing things with symbolic meaning

4. 4
   noun

   a system of symbols and symbolic representations

From symbol + -ism, sense 2 being a semantic loan from French symbolisme.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images