icon — ONAD · Shobdo

icon /ˈīˌkän, ˈaɪˌkɑn

▸ noun

1 (also ikon) a painting of Jesus Christ or another holy figure, typically in a traditional style on wood, venerated and used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.

2 a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration:

this iron-jawed icon of American manhood.

3 Computing a symbol or graphic representation on a screen of a program, option, or window, especially one of several for selection.

4 Linguistics a sign whose form directly reflects the thing it signifies, for example, the word snarl pronounced in a snarling way.

– ORIGIN mid 16th century (in the sense ‘simile’): via Latin from Greek eikōn ‘likeness, image’. Current senses date from the mid 19th century onwards.