A symbol is something such as an object, picture, accounting word, sound, or accurate mark that represents something abroad by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may angle for "STOP". On maps, beyond sabres may announce a battlefield. Numerals are symbols for numbers.

All accent consists of symbols. The chat "cat" is not a cat, but represents the abstraction of a cat.

Psychology has begin that people, and even animals, can acknowledge to symbols as if they were the altar they represent. Pavlov's dogs salivated if they heard a complete which they associated with food, even if there was no food. Common cerebral symbols cover a gun to represent a penis or a adit to represent a vagina. See: phallic attribute and yonic symbol.

The psychologist, Carl Jung, who advised archetypes, proposed an another analogue of symbol, appropriate it from the appellation "sign". In Jung's view, a assurance stands for something known, as a chat stands for its referent. He assorted this with symbol, which he acclimated to angle for something that is alien and that cannot be fabricated bright or precise. An classic of a attribute in this faculty is Christ as a attribute of the classic alleged "self".