Petroglyph vs. Hieroglyph

Petroglyphnoun

(archaeology) A rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times.

Hieroglyphnoun

An element of an ideographic (hieroglyphic) writing system.

Petroglyphnoun

a rock carving, especially a prehistoric one.

Hieroglyphnoun

(informal) Any obscure or baffling symbol.

Petroglyph

A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as , , or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images.

‘carving’; ‘engraving’;

Hieroglyphverb

To represent by hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyphnoun

A sacred character; a character used in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of symbols employed as syllables of a word, or as letters of the alphabet, having a certain sound, as a hawk represented the vowel a.

Hieroglyphnoun

Any character or figure which has, or is supposed to have, a hidden or mysterious significance; hence, any unintelligible or illegible character or mark.

Hieroglyphnoun

writing that resembles hieroglyphics (usually by being illegible)

Hieroglyphnoun

a writing system using picture symbols; used in ancient Egypt

Hieroglyphnoun

a stylized picture of an object representing a word, syllable, or sound, as found in ancient Egyptian and certain other writing systems

‘hieroglyphs describing the Mayan calendar’;

Hieroglyphnoun

a secret or incomprehensible symbol

‘the International Organisation for Standardization is introducing two new hieroglyphs to perplex washing-machine owners’;

Hieroglyph

A hieroglyph (Greek for ) was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called .

‘sacred carvings’; ‘hieroglyphs’;