glyph

[glif] /glɪf/
noun
1.
a pictograph or hieroglyph.
2.
a sculptured figure or relief carving.
3.
Architecture. an ornamental channel or groove.
Origin
1720-30; < Greek glyph(ḗ) carving, derivative of glýphein to hollow out
Related forms
glyphic, adjective
Examples from the web for glyph
  • glyph series in caves may therefor have been primitive writing.
  • Infrared also brought to light many other details, including previously unseen glyph figures.
  • Whatever he may have meant by that glyph, certain people will recognize in it an apt symbol.
  • Explain that a glyph is a picture representation of different attributes.
  • Many of the glyphs are pictured, then line drawings are overlaid on the pictures to enhance the glyph designs.
  • The glyph variable text-pointer-glyph controls the shape of the mouse pointer when over text.
  • Additionally the top of the boulder has been ground flat and a cross glyph pecked onto its surface.
British Dictionary definitions for glyph

glyph

/ɡlɪf/
noun
1.
a carved channel or groove, esp a vertical one as used on a Doric frieze
2.
(rare) another word for hieroglyphic
3.
any computer-generated character regarded in terms of its shape and bit pattern
Derived Forms
glyphic, adjective
Word Origin
C18: from French glyphe, from Greek gluphē carving, from gluphein to carve
Word Origin and History for glyph
n.

1727, "ornamental groove in architecture," from French glyphe (1701), from Greek glyphe "a carving," from glyphein "to hollow out, cut out with a knife, engrave, carve," from PIE root *gleubh- "to cut, slice" (cf. Latin glubere "to peel, shell, strip," Old English cleofan "to cleave"). Meaning "sculpted mark or symbol" (as in hieroglyph) is from 1825.

glyph in Technology
character
An image used in the visual representation of characters; roughly speaking, how a character looks. A font is a set of glyphs.
In the simple case, for a given font (typeface and size), each character corresponds to a single glyph but this is not always the case, especially in a language with a large alphabet where one character may correspond to several glyphs or several characters to one glyph (a character encoding).
Usually used in reference to outline fonts, in particular TrueType.
(1998-05-31)