A system of writing in which the characters consist of realistic or stylized pictures of actual objects, animals, or human beings (whole or part) The Egyptian hieroglyphic script is the best known, but by no means the only one Compare cuneiform
A word of Greek origin, meaning holy carvings Picture-like writing that was used in Egypt from about 3000 BC, only for religious and royal texts Jean-Francois Champollion decoded it in 1822 with the help of the famous Rosette-stone
Hieroglyphics are symbols in the form of pictures which are used in some writing systems, for example those of ancient Egypt. = hieroglyphs. a system of writing that uses pictures to represent words (hiéroglyphique, from , from , from hieros ( HIERARCHY) + glyphein )