Meaning & use
pictograph
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A chart that uses small pictures or symbols, each standing for a fixed number, to show amounts.
Grammar: A countable noun: a pictograph, two pictographs. A key usually explains what each picture means.
Patterns
- a pictograph of something
- a pictograph showing something
The class made a pictograph in which each apple stood for five students.
In the pictograph, one car symbol equals ten vehicles.
The report included a pictograph of monthly rainfall.
nouncountable
A simple picture used as a sign or as writing to stand for an object or idea, especially in ancient cultures.
Grammar: Used in history and archaeology for early picture-writing, and also for rock paintings.
The cave wall was covered in pictographs of hunters and animals.
Early Mesopotamian writing began as pictographs pressed into clay.
Archaeologists copied each pictograph carefully before the paint faded.
Word forms
| plural | pictographs |
|---|
Common combinations
- draw a pictograph
- Students were asked to draw a pictograph of their favorite pets.
- read a pictograph
- You need the key to read a pictograph correctly.
- ancient pictograph
- An ancient pictograph on the cliff shows a boat.
- rock pictograph
- Rock pictographs line the canyon walls.
- pictograph key
- The pictograph key says each star equals twenty books.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pictogram
- Pictogram is almost identical and is the more common British word, also used for signs such as a toilet symbol.
- icon
- Icon usually means a small symbol on a screen, while pictograph emphasizes picture-writing or picture charts.
- ideogram
- An ideogram stands for an idea rather than a physical object, so it is more abstract than a pictograph.
- petroglyph
- A petroglyph is a picture carved into rock, whereas a pictograph is painted or drawn.
Word family
- pictographic adjective
- made up of or using pictures as symbols
- pictogram noun
- a picture that stands for a word or idea
- photograph noun
- a related word sharing the -graph ending, meaning a picture made with a camera
Commonly confused: pictograph or petroglyph? pictograph or photograph?
pictograph vs petroglyph
A petroglyph is carved or scratched into rock. A pictograph is painted or drawn, and the word also covers charts.
pictograph vs photograph
A photograph is an image taken with a camera. A pictograph is a simple symbol or chart.
Practice
In a pictograph where each smiley face means 10 students, four smiley faces show how many students?
Choose one answer.
Each symbol stands for a fixed number, so four symbols stand for 40. Reading the key correctly is the point of a pictograph.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pictograph”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.