Ideogram

An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idéa 'idea' + gráphō 'to write') is a symbol used in a writing system that represents the idea of something, rather than the sounds forming the name.^[1] They are independent of any particular language, in best case they are universal. Some ideograms are more arbitrary than others: some are only meaningful assuming preexisting familiarity with some convention; others more directly resemble their signifieds.

• Numerals and mathematical symbols are ideograms, for example ⟨1⟩ 'one', ⟨2⟩ 'two', ⟨+⟩ 'plus', and ⟨=⟩ 'equals'.
• The ampersand ⟨&⟩ is used in many languages to represent the word and, originally a stylized ligature of the Latin word et.
• Other typographical examples include ⟨§⟩ 'section', ⟨€⟩ 'euro', ⟨£⟩ 'pound sterling', and ⟨©⟩ 'copyright'.