Meaning & use

pictograph

noun·Academic

A picture or symbol that represents a word, idea, or piece of data, often used in charts or ancient writing.

See it in a sentence

The chart used a pictograph of a car to represent every thousand vehicles sold.

Archaeologists studied the ancient pictographs carved into the canyon walls.

A note on using this word

In statistics, a pictograph shows data using repeated small pictures instead of bars or lines, while in archaeology it refers to prehistoric picture-writing.

Words with a similar meaning

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