Definition of hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs

/hajˌɹowglɪˈfs/ - [hayrowglifs] -

We found 3 definitions of hieroglyphs from 2 different sources.

What does hieroglyphs mean?

Wiktionary

hieroglyphs (Noun)
Plural of hieroglyph.

Part of speech

🔤

hieroglyphs, noun, plural of hieroglyph.

WordNet

Noun Plural: hieroglyphs
hieroglyph - a writing system using picture symbols; used in ancient Egypt
		hieroglyphic
		orthography, writing system a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols
hieroglyph - writing that resembles hieroglyphics (usually by being illegible)
		hieroglyphic
		writing the activity of putting something in written form; "she did the thinking while he did the writing"

= synonym
= antonym
= related word

Wiktionary

hieroglyph (Noun)
An element of an ideographic hieroglyphic writing system.

Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘

hieroglyph (a.)
Alt. of Hieroglyphic

OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω

hieroglyph
A character from a logographic or partly logographic writing system.

Wikipedia

Hieroglyphs (or Hieroglyphics) are a type of writing. They use symbols or pictures to stand for sounds and words.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are the most well-known form, but other societies also used them. Hieroglyphs have been found in Turkey, Crete, United States, Canada, Central America, and other countries. Ancient Egyptians used pictures to make a phonetic alphabet, so that each sound could be written with a picture-word, or "pictograph". For example, a zig-zag for water n came to mean the letter "n", because the Egyptian word for water started with n. This same picture became our letter 'M' in the Latin alphabet, because the Semitic word for water started with m, and Semitic workers changed the symbols to fit sounds in their own language. In the same way, our Latin letter 'N' came from the hieroglyph for snake D since the word for "snake" started with n in Semitic; but in Egyptian, this picture had stood for a sound like English "J" because of their word for snake.

The word "hieroglyph" comes from the Greek words ἱερός (hierós 'sacred') and γλύφειν (glúphein 'to carve' or 'to write'), and was first used to mean the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Greeks who came to Egypt before and during the Ptolemaic Period (305 BC - 30 BC) saw that while a cursive script called "demotic" was used for every day writings, the picture letters were often found carved on temple walls, tombs, and monuments. These glyph forms of writing were eventually phased out when Christianity took hold