hieroglyph
/ˈhaɪɚ.əˌɡlɪf/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.98 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An element (individual sign or glyph) of a hieroglyphic writing system.
noun
An element (individual sign or glyph) of a hieroglyphic writing system.
Example Sentences
- "Hieroglyphs were discovered on the wall inside the temple."
- "Mayan Hieroglyphs as Linguistic Evidence. In Third Palenque Round Table, 1978, vol. V, part 2, edited by Merle Greene Robertson, pp. 204-216."
- "Some idea of the nature of Mayan hieroglyphs has already been gained from the sets of day-signs and month-signs. In the opinion of the writer, Mayan hieroglyphs are among the best examples of calligraphy; each glyph block is a composition exhibiting remarkable qualities of design."
- "With your handwriting, it's no surprise the Prof can't read your hieroglyphs!"
- ""There are SCPs with antimemetic properties," Marion goes on. "There are ideas which cannot be spread. There are entities and phenomena which harvest and consume information, particularly information about themselves. You take a Polaroid photo of one, it'll never develop. You write a description down with a pen on paper and hand it to someone— but what you've written turns out to be hieroglyphs, and nobody can understand them, not even you. You can look directly at one and it won't even be invisible, but you'll still perceive nothing there.""
Etymology
First attested around 1598, a back-formation from hieroglyphic (1580s), from Middle French hiéroglyphique, from Late Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós) (Plutarch τά ἱερογλυφικά [γράμματα] "hieroglyphic [writing]), ἱερόγλυφος (hierógluphos, “carver of hieroglyphs”) (Ptolemy), a compound of ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) and γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”), a calque of Egyptian mdw-nṯr (“the god’s word”), nTr-md. By surface analysis, hiero- + glyph.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *glewbʰ-, hiéroglyphique, hieroglyphicus, ἱερογλυφικός, mdw-nṯr
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhaɪɚ.əˌɡlɪf/
- British English: /ˈhaɪ.ɹəˌɡlɪf/