Pictogram

A pictogram is a simplified picture used to represent an object, activity, or idea. Its visual form communicates meaning with little or no written language.

ISO 7010: An international standard specifying graphical safety signs and their meanings. Its standardized safety symbols show how pictograms can communicate hazards across languages.
Iconicity: The degree to which a sign resembles or imitates what it represents. A pictogram often works because its shape visually resembles its referent.
Cave painting: Prehistoric images painted or engraved on cave walls and rock surfaces. These images illustrate early uses of simplified visual forms to depict things and actions.
Ideogram: A graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept rather than a specific spoken sound. The distinction highlights whether a symbol depicts a thing or directly represents an idea.
Olympic pictograms: Sport-specific graphic symbols designed to represent events at the Olympic Games. Each host edition uses pictograms to identify sports within a large multilingual event.
Public information symbol: A pictogram used to identify a public service or facility, such as toilets or information desks. These signs apply pictograms to everyday wayfinding in shared spaces.
Semiotics: The study of signs, signification, and meaning-making. Pictograms are signs whose meanings depend on visual form and shared conventions.
Egyptian hieroglyphs: The writing system of ancient Egypt, combining pictorial, phonetic, and semantic signs. Hieroglyphs show how pictures can become parts of a complex writing system.
Logogram: A written symbol that represents a word or morpheme. Logograms belong to writing systems, while pictograms need not encode particular words.
AIGA symbol signs: A set of public-information symbols developed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The set is a landmark effort to make public signs consistent and widely recognizable.

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