icon
Americannoun
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Digital Technology. a picture or symbol that appears on a screen and is used to represent a file, account, application, etc..
Tap the icon to download the app.
Click the flag icon at the top of the web page to toggle the language to English.
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Eastern Church. a representation of some sacred personage or event, such as Christ or a saint or the Resurrection, painted usually on a wood surface and venerated for its subject.
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a person or thing that epitomizes for many people a value, an era, a community, etc.
Blue jeans remain an American cultural icon, despite the outsourcing of their manufacture to other countries.
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a person or thing that is revered or idolized.
Elvis Presley is a cultural icon of the 20th century.
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Semiotics. a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it.
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any picture, image, or other representation.
noun
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Also: ikon. a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, esp one painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church
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an image, picture, representation, etc
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a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement
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a person regarded as a sex symbol or as a symbol of the latest fashion trends
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a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system, that enables the facility to be activated by means of a screen cursor rather than by a textual instruction
Related Words
See image.
Etymology
Origin of icon
First recorded in 1565–75; from Latin īcon, from Greek eikṓn “figure, image, likeness”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Every year Dr. Seuss Day is celebrated on 2 March, the date the incomparable icon of literature was born in 1904.
From BBC
Hershey said the brothers’ decision to sell transformed a $12 million-$14 million brand into a more than $3 billion icon.
Only true icons received that kind of news coverage.
From Literature
It was only fitting to pay homage to Arnold this way, a fashion icon in his own right who was once voted the best dressed man of Los Angeles by L.A.
From Los Angeles Times
Costs have scuppered that dream to date, but perhaps the opportunity of a fairytale ending for an Irish icon will be bring one last dream to fruition.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
