symbol
sym·bol/ˈsɪmbəl/noun, verb
symbol is spelled S-Y-M-B-O-L: 6 letters and 2 syllables (sym·bol). It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, symbol means “A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of symbol is symbols.
How many letters and syllables are in symbol?
| Letters | 6: S-Y-M-B-O-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: sym·bol |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is symbol?
Symbol appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce symbol?
- /ˈsɪmbəl/
Symbol has 2 syllables, split sym·bol in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-symbol.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-symbol.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with symbol
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: cymbal (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of symbol
- symbols plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- symboling US, participle, present
- symbolling UK, participle, present
- symboled US, participle, past
- symbolled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does symbol mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.
"$" is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries.
- 2
A thing considered the embodiment or cardinal exemplar of a concept, theme, or other thing.
The lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or patience.
- 3
A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent. See also icon and index.
- 4
A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.
The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols.
- 5
The numerical expression which defines a plane's position relative to the assumed axes.
- 6
obsoleteThat which is thrown into a common fund; hence, an appointed or accustomed duty.
- 7
obsoleteShare; allotment.
- 8
An internal identifier used by a debugger to relate parts of the compiled program to the corresponding names in the source code.
verb
- 1
To symbolize.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Symbol in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense character or glyph:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.