Meanings
- derogatorynot comparablemathematicsUsing symbol pushing; solving mathematical problems by manipulating symbols (as in algebra) rather than through visual or intuitive understanding.
Perhaps no mechanistic symbol-pushing system could ever produce behavior that matched that of humans—after all, not all kinds of mechanisms can be used to produce all kinds of results.
1999, Max Hailperin, Barbara Kaiser, Karl Knight, Concrete Abstractions, Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 2032 more examples
Reasoning by equivalence is essentially a symbol-pushing technique, which reduces algebraic reasoning to a mechanical calculation. There is nothing pejorative in describing this activity as symbol-pushing or as mechanical: in some senses this automation is liberating.
1995, Proof Technology in Mathematics Research and Teaching, Springer International Publishing, →ISBN, page 314Personally I think I would have to accept any computer that were to pass the Turing Test as intelligent. Human use of language is so intricate and so laden with meaning that I don't believe this test could ever be passed without real understanding of what is being said. I tend to doubt, however, that any traditional rule-following, symbol-pushing computer will ever pass the test.
2018, David J. Eck, The Most Complex Machine, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 427
Origin
Derived from symbol pushing.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
symbol-pushing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symbol-pushing
“symbol-pushing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symbol-pushing. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “symbol-pushing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symbol-pushing.
Source: symbol-pushing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.