hieroglyph

plural hieroglyphs

1. An element (individual sign or glyph) of a hieroglyphic writing system.

   Hieroglyphs were discovered on the wall inside the temple.

   2 more examples

   Mayan Hieroglyphs as Linguistic Evidence. In Third Palenque Round Table, 1978, vol. V, part 2, edited by Merle Greene Robertson, pp. 204-216.

   1986, Victoria Reifler Bricker, A Grammar of Mayan Hieroglyphs

   Some idea of the nature of Mayan hieroglyphs has already been gained from the sets of day-signs and month-signs. In the opinion of the writer, Mayan hieroglyphs are among the best examples of calligraphy; each glyph block is a composition exhibiting remarkable qualities of design.

   1924, Herbert Joseph Spinden, The Reduction of Mayan Dates, page 15

   1. In particular, an Egyptian hieroglyph.
2. informalAny obscure or baffling symbol.

   With your handwriting, it's no surprise the Prof can't read your hieroglyphs!

   1 more example

   "There are SCPs with antimemetic properties," Marion goes on. "There are ideas which cannot be spread. There are entities and phenomena which harvest and consume information, particularly information about themselves. You take a Polaroid photo of one, it'll never develop. You write a description down with a pen on paper and hand it to someone— but what you've written turns out to be hieroglyphs, and nobody can understand them, not even you. You can look directly at one and it won't even be invisible, but you'll still perceive nothing there."

   2015 January 30, qntm, “We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, pages 9-10

present singular third person hieroglyphs · participle present hieroglyphing · participle past hieroglyphed · past hieroglyphed

1. transitiveTo represent by hieroglyphs.