The AI-powered English dictionary
plural icons
An image, symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion. examples
(religion, especially Eastern Christianity) A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels. quotations examples
Last week the Archdiocese sent emmissaries to investigate the icon and decided that the tears were not a hoax, Father Koufos said.
1986 December 22, “‘Weeping Virgin’ Icon Draws Throngs To Chicago”, in The New York Times
(by extension) A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing. quotations examples
Only a handful of rock musicians have become genuine icons - larger-than-life symbolic figures whose personal triumphs and vicissitudes seem to mirror the ups and downs of rock as a whole, and sometimes of the society that nurtures it. Often, rock icons become the objects of personality cults that tend to overshadow their musical accomplishments.
1981 May 31, Robert Palmer, “Two Icons of Rock Music”, in The New York Times
Barbie is viewed as an icon of American culture in her new biography, Barbie: Her Life and Times (Crown, $25), written by Billy Boy, a clothing and jewelry designer in Paris.
1987 December 23, “Barbie: Doll, Icon Or Sexist Symbol?”, in The New York Times
(graphical user interface) A small picture that represents something. quotations examples
The program's most quintessentially Macintoshian feature, one as yet unique among spreadsheets, is its icon bar, which resides at the top of the screen just below the standard menu bar. It contains 21 icons, each of which allows the user to perform a specified function with but a few clicks of the mouse.
1985 September 15, Erik Snadberg-Diment, “Number Crunching on the Macintosh”, in The New York Times
(linguistics, semiotics) A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons. examples