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Symbols carried by a culture rather than by a rule or an institution: luck and protective charms, folk and vernacular marks, festival and craft motifs, and the emblems of regional identity.
The catalogue's broadest domain, and deliberately so. A symbol is here when its authority is customary — when the answer to 'who says it means that' is a community rather than a body.
Culturally established and historically documented in near-equal measure. Records here more often carry a geography or a culture on the meaning, because the same mark frequently means different things a border apart.
All 980symbols in this domain, A–Z.
A script commissioned for an empire.
A raised open palm facing outward, fingers up — the gesture of fearlessness.
Letters standing for numbers.
Black over red with a yellow disc at the centre.
A word written repeatedly with one letter dropped each line, forming a triangle.
Marks naming large print, braille and audio versions.
The single large suit mark, ranking either lowest or highest.
An acorn carried or displayed as a charm, and used as a decorative finial.
Gemstones set in order so that their initials spell a word.
Three concentric circles.
A script invented by two teenagers.
A borrowed mark in a new script.
An eight-armed Icelandic stave with trident-like terminals.
A raised open palm with a wheel at its centre, bearing the word ahimsa.
A script that outlived its language.
A stylised heart shape.
The divine name as one glyph.
The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, used together.
Geometric marks on skin.
Pictures for a language that also had cuneiform.
An anchor on a decoration or badge, marking naval service.
An anchor carved on a monument.
A winged human figure carved as a monument or in relief.
A mark closing a passage.
An ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic sign shaped like a cross with a looped top, signifying life.
A raised dot dividing a clause.
A horizontal stroke below the syllable.
A two-faced nasal mark.
An anvil with a hammer, marking a smith.
A comma turned the other way.
A decorated circle closing a verse.
A pointer to a note below.
A divider between hemistichs.
A mark opening a numbered reference.
A mark opening a line of verse.
A question mark facing left.
One character meaning 'year'.
The digits used in Arabic script.
The hand the Hebrew Bible is written in.
A half nasal, mostly historic.
One ring instead of two.
A wheel of curving rays.
A mark above a vowel showing exclamation or stress.
A colon-like mark ending an Armenian sentence.
A mark placed over the questioned syllable.
A navy blue wheel with twenty-four evenly spaced spokes.
A set of eight auspicious marks drawn together in Buddhist, Hindu and Jain traditions.
A small emblem identifying which office tested and marked the article.
A star marking a line as genuine.
The ancient auspicious mark as it continues in Asian religious practice.
The solar term at 180° of solar longitude.
A mark showing an elided initial vowel.
A script built to record sound exactly.
The solar term at 345° of solar longitude.
A short ribbon folded into a loop, worn to signal support for a cause.
A fern frond with paired leaflets.
A flag for twenty, a feather for eight thousand.
A vast carved disc with a central face ringed by glyphs.
Numbered points from 1 to 24, counted in opposite directions for each player.
A continuous line of stitches worked backwards.
Eight three-line trigrams arranged around a centre, in one of two standard orders.
A star of nine points.
Three lines and two stars.
The Balinese vowel canceller.
A mark punctuating Balinese script.
A bamboo stem on a numbered bonus tile.
A king's script that became a syllabary.
A wavy line or a small basin before a date, marking a baptism.
A mark closing a text.
A plain weave with threads grouped in pairs.
A script recovered from the diaspora.
A script for the ritual specialist.
A Philippine script with a modern revival.
A colonial fix for a real defect.
A pattern of strokes carrying news.
A dot for a limb behind the body.
Five horizontal lines mapped onto the body.
A vertical division marking one instant.
A vertical dash for a limb in front.
A horizontal dash for a limb at stave level.
A mark above the stave for travel.
A line joining successive positions.
A counting unit of four.
An invocation opening a document.
A distinct form of a consonant without its vowel.
A grainline set at forty-five degrees to the weave.
A doubled section of rope without a crossing.
Two runes sharing a stroke.
Incised figures aiding a recitation.
A star before a date meaning the person was born then.
A five-pointed black star on a gold band.
The rotation design, adapted once more.
Looped stitches worked along a fabric edge.
A symbol language meant to need no translation.
A heart-shaped leaf with a long tapering drip tip.
Cotton cloth patterned in fermented-mud dark on cream.
An open book with a pen, marking a scholar, clerk or writer.
A seven-armed sun wheel.
A fixed loop that does not tighten under load.
A signature riding the freight.
The ancestor of the digits.
A grammar for reading a brand.
A star-shaped shield with a blue sphere on a coffee and tobacco wreath.
A woven rush cross with four arms and a square centre.
A seated figure of Britannia marking the higher 958 silver standard.
A chain with one link broken, carved on a monument.
A classical column carved snapped off partway up.
A sign of letters left out.
One of four living Philippine scripts.
A sound that carries further than a shout.
A small coffin or urn outline before a date, marking a burial.
A butterfly carved on a monument, most often a child's.
Signs of interval, not of pitch.
Crossing lines spanning several squares, showing stitches worked out of order.
A winged staff with two serpents wound around it, originally the attribute of Hermes (Mercury), the messenger god.
A stacked pile of stones marking a route, a summit or a place.
Letters after a year saying which era it counts from.
A medal awarded for service in a named conflict or theatre.
A red maple leaf with eleven points.
A crescent for a borrowed vowel.
A dot above a crescent, marking a nasalised vowel.
A crescent cancelling a vowel.
Numbers marking gold purity — 375, 585, 750, 916 — and what carats mean.
A lattice of small repeating curves and circles whose real job is to give nothing away.
Letters that look Greek and are not.
The rotation principle, applied again.
A rope drawn round a royal name.
The next page's first word printed at the foot of this one.
A Javanese nasal mark.
A green cedar tree with horizontally layered branches.
A cross with a ring encircling the intersection of its arms.
A knot built on a hidden grid.
A hanging or standing vessel for burning incense.
Two Hebrew letters read as the word for 'living', worn as a pendant.
A small oval, the foundation of crochet.
A stepped cross of twelve outer corners, often with a central hole.
A Brahmic script across two states.
A script of a state that ended.
A syllabary made by a man who could not read.
The Greek letters X and P superimposed as a monogram of Christ.
A character standing for the one before it.
A symmetrical decorative knot tied from a single cord.
A seal carrying a phrase rather than a name.
A red block of carved characters.
A column of small characters closing a work.
A chrysanthemum on a numbered bonus tile.
A sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum flower seen from directly above.
Vietnamese written in Chinese characters.
A sprig of rue in silver.
Two hands holding a crowned heart, an Irish emblem of love and loyalty.
A pattern that is title to country.
Two hands joined in a handshake, carved on a monument.
Two turns crossing over their own parts on a spar.
A black cloverleaf on a stem — three lobes, not a weapon.
Four percentages naming a colour in printing inks.
A letter written beneath a letter.
Money left at a shrine, well or grave.
The solar term at 195° of solar longitude.
A statement at the end or start of a book naming who made it.
Optional extra marks struck to mark a national occasion.
A balance-scale mark recognised across the Vienna Convention countries.
A uniform rounded-top headstone bearing a unit badge, name and optional emblem.
Grids of symbols used to speak without speech.
Rings drawn inside one another, incised as a protective mark.
A spiral shell drawn with its opening to the right, blown as a horn in ritual.
The rank and suit repeated small in two corners, so a fanned hand can be read.
A twisted horn-shaped pendant, usually red, worn against the evil eye.
A mark closing a section.
A laid thread held down by small stitches.
King, queen and jack — and why the jack is marked J rather than Kn.
Rotation carries the vowel.
A figure that names a lineage.
A red and white chequered shield of twenty-five squares.
A small oval in a chart.
Several strokes joined at the foot.
A diagram of stitch symbols arranged in the shape of the finished piece.
A small loop on the edge of a row.
A fan of strokes from one point.
A filled dot in a chart.
Crossbars on a stem counting how many times the yarn is wrapped.
Vertical strokes whose crossbars count the height of the stitch.
A cross-shaped decoration — the dominant form for gallantry awards in Europe.
Two diagonal stitches crossing in a square.
Letters and shapes in a grid standing for thread colours.
Two tools carved crossed in saltire, marking a trade.
A crown on a decoration, marking the sovereign as the source of the honour.
A sign that is written and never said.
Where the sign goes, and why the answer is different in every country.
Greek written in syllables.
A barred D for a different sound.
A hidden long a.
Bands of patterned colour on wooden building members.
A round red figure with a bearded face and no limbs.
A single letter recording the year of assay — and readable only per office.
Raised hands twisting from the wrist, used in place of clapping.
Slanted lines showing two stitches worked into one, and which way the result leans.
The third script on the stone.
The vertical and horizontal lines that carry the relationships in a tree.
A phonemic alphabet for a territory.
A raised ring marking a shortened word.
A spoked wheel representing the Buddha's teaching.
Both hands cupped in the lap, right resting on left, thumb tips touching.
A red lozenge standing on one point.
An angled mark flagging a quotation.
A doubled upright stroke.
The marriage rings drawn apart, meaning the marriage ended.
A Jammu hand related to Sharada.
A prefix and suffix giving a permanent handle to a document.
Pictographs still being written.
A style with a stated origin.
The character for joy written twice, side by side.
An eagle with two heads facing opposite ways.
A cube marked 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64, used to raise the stake in backgammon.
A dove carved on a monument, often in flight or with an olive branch.
A classical urn with a cloth laid over it.
Five colours in five points.
A wooden comb with a row of long teeth.
A label certifying a maker.
A shorthand that became a script.
A monarch's head marking that excise duty had been paid.
Four interlocked ram's horns.
A stylised eagle facing left with a shield on its breast.
Cuts in an animal's ear encoding an owner or a number.
The character for east on a tile face.
A mark for a document written and illustrated for accessibility.
Lines following a shape at even intervals outward.
Wording distinguishing an edition from an impression.
A picture that fixes the meaning.
Numbered arrows showing the order needle enters and leaves.
The solar term at 150° of solar longitude.
A closed lattice of interwoven right-angled lines with no beginning and no end.
A circle brushed in a single unbroken stroke.
A semicolon that asks.
Thirteen months, one of five days.
A cross of dense interlaced latticework with no free ends.
Four dots in a square closing a sentence.
Barred letters standing for numbers.
A mark opening a passage.
A row of dots and dashes dividing text.
Marks for chanting, above the line.
Two stacked dots separating words.
A painted thanks on a wall.
An offering left in thanks for a prayer answered.
A permanent loop made by tucking strands back.
A bearded figure rising from a winged disc with a ring in hand.
Two right hands clasped, a betrothal motif on European rings.
A stopper knot forming an eight in the rope.
An enclosed compound with one entrance.
A number in a shaped surround giving the metal's purity in parts per thousand.
A set of hand shapes standing for the letters of a written alphabet.
A firefighter's helmet carved on a monument, often with crossed axes or a ladder.
A printed design on an envelope issued with a new stamp on its first day.
A stylised lily of three petals bound at the base, long used in French heraldry.
A number identifying the holding an animal belongs to.
A rectangle with a central triangle and two corners.
A bullet opening a paragraph.
A fixed order of marks used where numbers are unsuitable.
A number identifying a management unit of woodland.
Paint bands and dots marking trees for felling or retention.
A small five-petalled flower carved on a memorial.
A rounded rectangle that is never quite one.
A U that fills what the ovoid leaves.
A clover with four leaflets instead of three, taken as a sign of luck.
Latin capitals, some upside down.
A mark made by chilling rather than burning.
A small filled dot standing for a wrapped knot.
The solar term at 210° of solar longitude.
Two crocodiles sharing one stomach.
Small kana beside a character.
An award for a specific act of courage, as distinct from service.
A standing cockerel, often crowing, with raised comb and tail.
An alphabet for Wolof.
A golden eagle bearing a shield of five symbols and a scroll.
Letters counted as numbers.
The small marks that stand in for born, died and married before a date.
A cross before a date meaning the person died then.
A plain silver cross bearing St George and the dragon, for gallantry away from the enemy.
A cluster of dots dividing text.
A handbell with a vajra-shaped handle.
The seal the bank holds.
The first Slavic alphabet.
Letters and numbers naming points on a Go board, in three competing conventions.
Numbers, triangles, squares and circles printed on stones in a Go diagram.
A pair of fish drawn upright and facing one another, tails down.
A name written fast.
The solar term at 60° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 75° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 30° of solar longitude.
Sanskrit written in the Tamil country.
The compass direction a burial faces, set by tradition.
An eagle with a shield, arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other.
A continuous line folding back on itself at right angles.
The character for prosperity on a tile face.
A face with foliage growing from it, carved in a church.
A crane with a spray of golden feathers on its head.
The dot of a revealed text.
A paired stone beast set at an entrance.
Angled double arrowheads used as quotation marks across much of Europe.
A dot marking nasalisation in Gujarati.
A mark doubling the following consonant.
The other Gurmukhi nasal mark.
A borrowed accent mark.
A recent script for a Himalayan language.
A pair of interlocking spirals meeting in a knotted centre.
A mark from a certifying body stating that a product is permissible under Islamic law.
A square pieced from two triangles.
A crossed hammer and crescent-bladed sickle.
An open right-hand palm, often with an eye motif, used across Jewish, Muslim, Christian and secular Middle Eastern/North African traditions as a protective symbol.
A glottal stop that disappears.
A ring making a p.
Consonant shapes drawn from the mouth.
Letters packed into a square cell.
A script for a stateless language.
A carved cylinder stamping a name in red ink.
A living Philippine abugida.
Figures pecked into lava.
A red rounded form, the one suit that survived every regional redesign.
A lunar year pulled back into the sun.
A mark binding a word to the next.
A mark dividing a verse into clauses.
An eagle marking national origin.
Crossed diagonal stitches forming a zigzag band.
A painted circular geometric design on Pennsylvania Dutch barns.
A six-petalled rosette drawn with a compass inside a circle.
Hieroglyphs written at speed.
A year counted from a journey.
A coin recarved by hand.
A chalk or coal mark left on a gatepost as a message to the next traveller.
A gold crown with a visibly bent cross on top.
An iron horseshoe hung as a charm, conventionally with the ends upward.
An hourglass carved on a monument, marking time running out.
A household's sign of ownership.
Abbreviated Greek letters naming the figure in an icon.
Three letters, I H S, carved as a Christian monogram.
A written Gurmukhi phrase used as an emblem, opening the Sikh scripture.
A distinct assay office mark showing an article was hallmarked on import.
A circle or short bar showing a stitch added.
A list of cited passages ordered by source rather than by topic.
One sign carrying two or three scripts.
Two letters fused into one.
A number distinguishing one animal within a holding.
Short inscriptions nobody can read.
A vowel present until cancelled.
Lines on the face and hands.
Stacked stones in a rough human form with outstretched arms.
The Cree design, carried north.
The character for fortune, hung upside down.
A torch carved pointing downward, sometimes still alight.
Raised and lowered ticks before a stressed syllable.
A gold harp with a straight forepillar and silver strings.
A thirteen-digit number identifying one edition of a book.
An eight-digit number identifying a serial publication.
Trailing ivy carved winding across a monument.
A composite emblem shaped like a standing figure, containing a swastika, a raised palm and a crescent.
Four arms for four states of being.
A loop of prayer beads, conventionally 108 with a larger head bead.
A dated line sweeping up the archipelago.
A standardised chart alphabet readable without the language.
A mark separating clauses in Javanese script.
A pre-velar breath mark.
The seal that signs a contract.
The extra card, and an American invention rather than a medieval one.
Marks telling the eye to go back.
The clerk's hand of north India.
A bird's foot marking an omission.
A single motif in a circular field, drawn in one colour.
An accent distinguishing grammar, not sound.
The velar breath mark in Kannada.
A stroke suppressing a Kannada consonant's vowel.
A script devised in a single year.
Strips of woven cloth with named geometric blocks.
A stroke turning a letter into a number.
A double-edged sword within a circle, flanked by two curved swords.
Two scripts, one still unread.
A mark closing a sentence in Khmer.
Signs for the days of the moon.
A mark suppressing a Khmer consonant's vowel.
A community's script for its own texts.
A mark closing a whole work.
An official Sindhi hand, briefly.
A nasal riding on the next letter.
A blank square in a chart, the default stitch.
A crossed band leaning right.
A crossed band spanning several squares.
A vertical stroke with side strokes.
A blank or plain square in a chart.
A stroke leaning right in a chart square.
A small looped mark in a chart square.
The grid of symbols that represents a knitted fabric one stitch per square.
A dot or dash in a chart square.
The rule that rows alternate direction as the work turns.
A stroke leaning left in a chart square.
A small open circle in a chart square.
Brackets or a bold line marking the part that repeats.
A hollow fish-shaped windsock flown from a pole.
A cross within a circle, marking four moments of a life.
A closing ornament.
A carved floral door lattice.
A small drawstring pouch as an emblem.
The family name written first.
A carved post with a fierce face.
A single spiral based on an unfurling fern frond.
A letter or monogram in a shape, identifying the body certifying a product kosher.
Painted rafter patterns that name a house.
A mark meaning 'again'.
A mark that changes the vowel.
A drumhead divided into four.
A curl that ended a sentence.
The whole apparatus for reading Chinese.
The outer columns recording arm movement.
A rectangle with its near end pointed.
A column recording torso movement.
The middle line dividing left from right.
A curved line showing a circling path.
A curved bracket joining two symbols.
A rectangle both pointed and slanted.
The length of a symbol gives its duration.
A rectangle with its far end pointed.
The columns for a limb not bearing weight.
An outer column recording head movement.
A dotted fill meaning a high level.
A mark instructing that a position be kept.
A rectangle slanted to the left.
A solid fill meaning a low level.
A horizontally striped fill meaning middle level.
A plain rectangle meaning no direction.
A rectangle slanted to the right.
A slanted mark showing a turn.
A mark grading the size of a movement.
Three vertical lines read from the bottom up.
A straight line showing travel across the floor.
The columns immediately beside the centre line.
A lamb carved on a monument, most often a child's.
A Lao silent-letter mark.
A mark above a syllable fixing its tone.
An upright cross with a shorter crossbar set above the centre.
A Javanese raised r.
A letter lying on its side.
A single anchored chain loop forming a petal.
Brackets around text deleted in antiquity.
The headword form under which a word is listed.
Double lines showing where a piece may be adjusted.
Filled brackets for headings.
Syllables rotated into a block.
A trumpet-shaped lily carved on a monument.
A Himalayan script with a full stop of its own.
The script Linear B came from, unread.
A short-lived script, recently read.
Four lions standing back to back on a circular abacus.
A crowned lion holding a cross-topped staff and banner.
A walking lion marking sterling silver in England.
Rotation applied to Latin capitals.
Vestment and hanging colours following the church year.
A design burned or frozen into hide, read by a fixed grammar.
A numbered tag identifying an individual animal.
A steam engine carved on a monument, marking a railway worker.
Strips built outward from a central square.
A mark struck into the cut end of a log.
A script named after a palm leaf.
A rope crossing itself to enclose an opening.
A stylised open flower on a stem, the commonest devotional plant symbol in Asia.
A Greek-derived script with extra sounds.
A lyre or harp carved on a monument, marking a musician.
Diagrams tracing the path of a cord through a knot.
A wave meaning hold it longer.
A closed loop at the centre of a worked-in-the-round chart.
A merchant's script with no vowels.
Winds and dragons — the tiles with no number and no sequence.
Named hand patterns with point or fan values.
Circles, bamboo and characters — three suits numbered one to nine.
Three suits, honours and bonuses.
A small cross above the letter.
A mark shortening a vowel.
A small curl above the letter.
A small three above the letter.
A mark meaning say it again.
The twenty-two trump cards of the tarot pack, designed for a trick-taking game.
The solar term at 300° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 120° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 255° of solar longitude.
A script with no final consonants.
A letter form for a consonant with no vowel.
A sign standing for 'date'.
Fractions with their own glyphs.
A wooden mallet with a stone chisel, marking a mason.
Mongolian letters with added dots.
An alphabet that counts vowels as letters.
A concentric geometric diagram, square within circle.
A seated cat figurine with one paw raised in a beckoning gesture.
A stone carved with mantra text, stacked in walls.
A hand with index and little finger extended, the others folded.
A closed fist with the thumb pushed between index and middle finger.
Three armoured legs joined at the hip, bent at the knee.
A high stroke joining two words.
A spiral drawn from a Nazca line.
A Bon liturgical script.
Lines, crosses and hands added in a book's margin.
Two overlapping V shapes scratched as a protective mark.
Two interlocked rings before a date, meaning a marriage.
A script for a language across four states.
Vowels that hang off consonants.
Dots for ones, bars for fives.
A rounded square packed with smaller signs.
Signs for the units of a date.
Signs read in blocks.
A metal bar fixed across a medal's ribbon, naming a campaign or action.
A five-pointed star suspended from a light blue ribbon, the highest US military decoration.
A script for a language nobody spoke.
The Rod of Asclepius and the caduceus on memorials, and which of them actually means medicine.
A circle divided into four quadrants, often coloured.
A script revived and made official.
A skull, coffin or hourglass on a ring, worn as a reminder of mortality.
A syllabary written right to left.
A seven-branched lampstand, distinct from the nine-branched hanukkiah.
A seven-branched lampstand, used as a Jewish memorial marker.
A trader's sign on a bale.
A lion's head on a fish's body, spouting water.
A read script in an unread language.
A carved stick carrying a message.
Two joined loops on a flag.
An eagle on a prickly pear cactus devouring a snake.
A picture for every station.
A niche in a mosque wall showing the direction of prayer.
A small metal votive shaped as a limb, an organ, a person or an animal.
Grooves or lettering round the rim, invented against coin clipping.
A gauze-covered oil lamp, marking a miner and used to detect gas.
A half-size copy of a medal, worn with evening dress.
The solar term at 285° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 105° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 240° of solar longitude.
A small letter or emblem saying which mint struck the coin.
A string of thirty-three or ninety-nine beads used for counting recitations.
The seal for a parcel.
A screenfold read like a path.
A decorative cord knot tied on a gift envelope.
A mark opening a text or section.
A gap that is a character.
A pharmacist's mortar and pestle carved on a monument.
Codified hand positions in Indian religion and dance.
A commercial hand from the Punjab.
A sign meaning 'the said'.
A mark killing a consonant's vowel in Burmese.
Burmese digits, round by design.
Two strokes closing a passage.
A script made to unify Manding.
Seven marks for tone and length.
The cursive that became Arabic.
A carved seal in red.
A southern hand for Sanskrit.
Tiananmen gate under five stars in a wheat and rice wreath.
A woven design with a maker's rules.
A blue glass disc bearing concentric rings around a dark centre, worn against the evil eye.
Figures only whole from above.
Bold outlined geometric blocks in saturated colour on a house wall.
Numbers whose meaning depends on which national system.
A revived script made official.
A small circle for a nasal.
A block of nine squares in a three-by-three grid.
A triangular saffron flag bearing the Khanda.
A zigzag line of sharp reversals.
A greyed or shaded square standing for a stitch that does not exist yet.
A cross whose vertical arm is shifted towards the hoist.
The character for north on a tile face.
A monogram flagging a passage worth noting.
Ideographic marks drawn on cloth, skin and walls.
A body of signs deliberately not public.
Two forms joined to show a bond.
A dot beneath a letter, adapting it to a foreign sound.
A small metal numeral on a ribbon, counting awards or tours.
A script written by women.
A forked post used as an altar.
A second Hmong script, in the diaspora.
Two uprights closing a section.
Oak leaves and acorns carved on a monument.
A small cluster of oak leaves worn on a ribbon to mark a repeat award.
Five colours: blue, white, red, black and yellow.
A tall tapering four-sided pillar with a pyramidal top.
An Odia document invocation.
Notches cut along an edge.
An arrow saying where to start.
Kana carrying the grammar.
A script designed for Santali in 1925.
Angular letters cut for wood.
Wedges designed, not inherited.
Angular letters cut in stone.
A small brocade pouch amulet sold at Japanese shrines and temples.
A bird standing where a cane would be.
An open book carved on a monument, often a Bible.
An orchid on a numbered bonus tile.
A sixteen-digit number identifying a researcher.
The insignia of an order, worn in a form that indicates the grade held.
A cross with three crossbars, the lowest set at a slant.
A Somali alphabet from the 1920s.
An ornament opening a text.
A Javanese full stop.
A syllabary that writes the rime first.
A script that hid its own words.
A mark meaning the rest is cut.
A small bronze palm frond worn on a ribbon, chiefly in French and Belgian systems.
A long feathered palm leaf carved on a monument.
A caravan city's own hand.
Horizontal bands of red, black and green.
A mark killing a vowel.
Grams per square metre, or pounds per unusual ream.
A design cut, not drawn.
A line under the line.
A flourished mark opening a section.
A vertical stroke separating two words.
A logographic script that became an alphabet.
Three upright flower spikes above three paulownia leaves.
A circle enclosing a vertical line and two downward diagonal lines, originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement.
The squares, circles and connecting lines of a formal family diagram.
Arrows lifting a point and narrowing its sides.
Twenty-two letters that travelled.
A soft conical cap with the tip folded forward.
A pickaxe crossed with a shovel, marking a miner.
The fully realised work.
A herd mark tattooed onto both shoulders.
A shell pointing the way.
Two columns wound with a scrolling banner.
A pink awareness ribbon, associated with breast cancer.
A one-over-one-under grid, the simplest weave.
A label recording a plant's origin and traceability.
Fineness numbers for the two later-hallmarked precious metals.
The four marks that divide a deck, and where they actually came from.
Paired mountain and valley arrows in alternation.
Farming implements carved on a monument, marking agricultural work.
A plum blossom on a numbered bonus tile.
A cover over a raised letter.
A crowned white eagle with gold beak and talons on red.
Vowels placed around a consonant to show tone.
A drawn point of call.
A skeletal globe of intersecting rings on a stand.
A short verse or motto engraved inside a ring's band.
Strings whose bead count identifies the tradition.
Five colours in a fixed order representing the elements.
A cylinder inscribed with mantras and turned by hand.
Two hands pressed together with fingers pointing upward.
A domed canopy on a staff, hung with a fringe or valance.
Small holes guiding the ruling of a page.
A descending row of numerals showing which printing this is.
A record scratched where nothing else could be written.
A small extra emblem marking an occasion or a production detail.
Mexico's consumer protection mark.
A cloth badge for a demonstrated skill.
A respelling or phonetic notation showing how a word sounds.
The first alphabet, made from pictures.
A vowel written behind the letter.
A friction hitch gripping a rope under load.
The solar term at 15° of solar longitude.
A dot or short horizontal bar in a chart square.
A purple heart-shaped medal bearing a profile of George Washington.
A flower closing a chapter.
A mark of origin, not of maker.
A square pieced from four triangles.
A named grid diagram specifying how a block is pieced.
Knotted cords hanging from a main cord.
Dyed cords carrying category.
The knot that means one.
Turns counted to give the digit.
A cord hanging from the main line.
One knot, one unit, in the tens and above.
A cord hanging off a cord.
A small letter marking a required pause.
A paired mark offering one stop of two.
Small letters marking where to stop.
A small letter marking an optional pause.
A small letter forbidding a pause.
A mark indicating a place of prostration.
The solar term at 330° of solar longitude.
Horizontal stripes in the colours of the spectrum, the flag of LGBTQ pride.
An r tucked beneath its consonant.
A coloured floor pattern made at a threshold.
Straight or flaming rays radiating between the arms of a decoration.
A black bead in the margin.
A stated interval before a treated area may be entered.
Obverse, reverse, legend, exergue, edge — the parts, and which carries what.
The row of small stamped marks on gold and silver, and what each position in the row tells you.
How the parts of a medal group fit together — medal, ribbon, clasp, device and the order they are worn in.
The recurring motifs on gravestones, and why confident one-line meanings for them are usually overstated.
Tools and objects carved on graves, and why they are weaker evidence of a trade than they look.
Terms naming the front and back of a leaf.
The character for centre on a tile face.
A red awareness ribbon, the symbol of HIV and AIDS awareness.
A red string or thread worn on the wrist as protection.
Two overhand knots tied in opposite directions.
A small starred cross used in Japanese and Chinese text for a note.
Cuts in an ear naming an owner.
A Sumatran script of few letters.
A red paper or enamel poppy worn in remembrance of war dead.
The Sinhala raised r.
Brackets and asterisks marking a section of a pattern to be worked again.
An r that climbs onto the next letter.
A painted mark protecting a tree from felling.
An arrow turning a flap inside or outside itself.
A row of short ribbon lengths worn in place of the medals themselves.
A heaped-jewel bar.
A letter or number stamped inside a band, giving its size in a national scale.
A Khmer raised r.
A letter sitting on a curve.
Glyphs from Easter Island, unread.
A script that is not read.
A rope passed once around an object.
A loop of beads in five groups of ten, with a short pendant tail ending in a crucifix.
A rose carved on a monument, sometimes shown with a broken stem.
A small circular ribbon knot worn on civilian dress to indicate an honour.
A curved arrow turning the model in the plane.
A rope passed twice around an object.
Two rowan twigs bound with red thread into an equal-armed cross.
Two overlapping squares forming an eight-pointed star.
A heading or initial written in red.
A dot deciding hard or soft.
A cloud-shaped head on a curved shaft.
Monumental letters of severe geometry.
Cloths, ribbons and offerings tied to a tree.
Stop the voice, keep the breath.
A diagonal cross in the form of an X.
The older Hebrew letters, still in use.
Digits written above the syllables.
A bird turning its head backwards to take an egg from its back.
The marks of the Kashmiri hand.
Parallel stitches filling a shape solidly.
A structure with widely spaced, scattered interlacings.
A five-by-five letter square reading the same in four directions.
A script for a migrant community.
A small hooked mark standing for con or cum.
A divided mark standing for is.
A bar above a letter standing for a missing n or m.
A p with a crossed descender.
A p with a curled descender.
A q with a stroke through its tail.
A crossed stroke closing a genitive plural.
A curled mark closing a word.
A partly unrolled scroll carved on a monument.
The red that makes the mark.
Four numbered tiles naming the seasons.
A label identifying a certified batch of seed.
Marks showing the finished edge of woven cloth.
A cross with four curved shapes in its quarters.
A small star worn on a military medal ribbon to count campaigns or awards.
Dots instead of italics.
A bar with end strokes.
A solid outline round a piece.
The upright that closes a line.
A three-leaved clover, the emblem of Ireland.
An alphabet built to fit English sounds.
A pair of shears carved on a monument, marking a cloth trade or the cutting of life.
A female figure displaying her genitals, carved on a church or castle.
Two half hitches shortening a rope's middle.
A bend joining ropes of differing thickness.
A scallop or cockle shell carved on a monument.
Zigzag folded paper strips hung in Shinto ritual.
A twisted rice-straw rope with hanging paper strips.
A sailing vessel carved on a monument, marking a mariner.
Time struck in pairs.
The line the letters hang from.
A tile bearing the angle mover character.
The promoted bishop, written on the reverse.
The promoted rook, written on the reverse.
A mark showing a captured piece re-entered.
A tile bearing the gold character.
A five-sided tile bearing the king character.
A tile bearing the cassia horse character.
A tile bearing the fragrant chariot character.
A tile bearing the foot soldier character.
A mark showing a piece has been turned.
A tile bearing the flying chariot character.
A tile bearing the silver character.
Two rope ends joined by interlocking their strands.
The character for long life, often in a roundel.
Characters written in mirror image.
An opening blessing on the page.
Indian letters preserved in Japan.
A crescent at the top of a stylised human-shaped universe.
A word in capitals standing as a label for a sign, not a translation of it.
A letter at the foot of a page showing where a gathering starts.
A device cut in reverse into a ring's face, to be read in its impression.
A two-dimensional script recording handshape, movement and facial expression.
A fern frond with paired leaflets, shown in white or silver.
A cross or an X standing for the shortest worked stitch.
A mark suppressing a Sinhala consonant's vowel.
An arrow pushing a point inward and inverting it.
A stroke multiplying by a thousand.
A filled dot, the shortest crochet stitch.
Two stacked dots closing a verse.
The script that turned the page sideways.
Two closed loops interlaced with one another in a flat symmetrical figure.
A language written in seven syllables.
A line drawn without lifting the finger.
A script attributed to a revelation, in 1936.
The character for south on a tile face.
A column of signs on a flag.
The script behind a national emblem.
A pointed black leaf on a short stem, ranking highest in most games.
Initials in a shaped punch, identifying who submitted the article.
The solar term at 0° of solar longitude.
A carpenter's square and a pair of compasses interlocked, the emblem of Freemasonry.
An arrow flattening a flap open and down.
Nine interlocking triangles in a lotus ring, used as a focus for meditation.
The Tibetan stack instead of a virama.
The part of the rope not being worked.
A star on a decoration — the commonest award motif, and the least transferable.
A crescent moon paired with a star.
A six-pointed star formed from two overlapping triangles.
The solar term at 135° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 315° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 45° of solar longitude.
The solar term at 225° of solar longitude.
Overlapping slanted stitches forming a rope-like line.
Dense meandering lines that never cross.
Quilting worked along an existing seam line.
A vertical line or symbol in a chart marking where a marker is placed.
A monument carved as a rough-barked stump with its limbs cut short.
The solar term at 90° of solar longitude.
A golden sun with a human face and alternating straight and wavy rays.
A script revived by regulation.
An alphabet for a small Himalayan community.
How a medal hangs from its ribbon — ring, straight bar or ornate suspender.
A vertical stroke above the syllable.
An ancient hooked-cross symbol with a long history as a sign of good fortune across many cultures, and a separate, more recent history as the central emblem of Nazi Germany.
A script for a language called a dialect.
A dot above the line marking a pause.
Two competing vowel systems.
A face that states a descent.
A circle divided by an S-curve into red above and blue below.
The flag drawn to a stated geometry.
A Palawan script held by few.
A script for scripture in the north.
A script crossing a national border.
A drum that follows the tones of speech.
Four strokes and a cross.
Debt cut into a split stick.
A branch with paper, offered.
Ditto, in Tamil.
Three dots in a triangle, a distinctive Tamil letter.
An accounting mark for money due.
A date abbreviation in one glyph.
An accounting mark for money owed.
The word 'month' as a glyph.
A marker for 'number'.
A dot above a letter suppressing its vowel.
The older Tamil money mark.
The word 'year' as a glyph.
One script for many varieties.
Thousands of characters, all invented at once.
A doubled vowel mark meaning -n.
Printed and painted bark cloth.
A deliberate teardrop-shaped scorch burned into a timber beam.
A thread count written as colour codes and numbers, defining a tartan.
Vowels written above and below.
Abbreviations and numbers counting the stitches of each ring.
A stroke suppressing a Telugu consonant's vowel.
A struck bell marking time or attention in worship.
A mark showing a consonant carries no vowel.
Thailand's own digits.
A figure drawn from a measured grid.
A bat with outspread wings.
Twelve animals in a fixed order.
Three-line groups at the four corners.
The Victorian practice of assigning meanings to flowers — and why it is a poor key to gravestone carving.
Magpies among plum blossom.
A split pomegranate showing its seeds.
Ten stems against twelve branches, sixty pairs.
A ten-character ordinal series.
One language written three ways.
A roundel divided into three swirls.
A twelve-character ordinal series.
The year divided into twenty-four fifteen-degree steps.
Three gold crowns arranged two above one.
Three interlinked chain rings, the emblem of the Odd Fellows.
An outline filled fast.
Geometric letters of the Amazigh.
A geometric letter of dots and strokes.
A mark applied to the forehead, whose direction identifies the tradition.
A turn with the end tucked and twisted on itself.
A small nasal hook.
The Maithili manuscript hand.
A mark resembling a small seven, standing for 'and' in Latin and Irish.
A wave over a shortened sacred word.
A mark silencing a letter.
Squares of design on Inca cloth.
A comma-shaped swirl, often in a group of three.
A gate of two uprights and two crossbars, marking the entrance to a shrine.
Green, blue and black bands with a white headdress and star.
A script for a very small community.
Letters strung down a vertical line.
A painted rectangle on a tree or rock, marking a route and its turns.
An arrow of stones or sticks on the ground.
A mark saying the party has finished.
A crossed mark closing a route.
Five stripes in light blue, pink and white, the flag of transgender pride.
A round-bellied covered vase with a narrow neck, drawn sealed rather than open.
A shell case turned into a vase.
Three stacked lines, each solid or broken.
Three interlaced arcs forming a three-cornered knot.
A three-pronged spear head, the attribute of Shiva.
A calligraphic monogram with three tall vertical strokes and a looping tail.
Woven panels between the carvings.
A looping arrow instructing the model be flipped.
A stepped structure producing diagonal ridges.
Twenty named days in a cycle.
The high tone, usually left unmarked.
An alphabet written in wedges.
A crescent and dot for the sacred.
A capital for every English sound.
A pre-labial breath mark.
A funerary urn with a weeping willow bending over it.
Africa's first indigenous syllabary.
A short ribbed sceptre with prongs curving in at both ends.
A Telugu consonant-cluster hook.
A breath mark in recitation.
A drawn-out tone mark.
An eight-armed Icelandic stave, each arm ending in a different device.
A symmetrical drawing traced on the ground in powder.
A bronze cross pattée bearing a lion and crown, the highest British gallantry award.
A cylindrical standard of layered fabric on a pole, drawn as a tiered column.
Five marks over a Latin alphabet.
Two stacked dots marking a breathy final sound.
Thumb and forefinger touching to form a circle, other fingers extended.
Beads recording an agreement.
An alphabet devised in the 2000s.
Continuing allowed, stopping better.
Stopping allowed, continuing better.
A script attributed to a revelation.
A wavy line joining a range.
Four linked grids specifying threading, tie-up, treadling and the resulting cloth.
The top grid saying which shaft each warp thread passes through.
The predicted cloth pattern computed from a draft.
The two grids saying which shafts each treadle lifts and in what order.
A red dragon passant on a green and white field.
The character for west on a tile face.
Ears or a sheaf of wheat carved on a monument.
A circular diagram of the realms of rebirth.
Binding twine preventing a rope end from fraying.
A cross with bent arms, withdrawn from Diné use.
A language whistled across a valley.
The solar term at 165° of solar longitude.
A blank tile or one bearing an empty frame.
A Javanese final h.
A horse carrying a flaming jewel, printed on prayer flags.
A winged child's face carved on a gravestone.
An hourglass with a wing on each side, for time flying.
A human skull with wings, carved on early gravestones.
Outspread wings on a badge or decoration, chiefly marking aviation.
One picture for each year.
The solar term at 270° of solar longitude.
A square of forty-nine coloured squares.
A stoneware or glass bottle filled with pins, hair and urine, buried as a counter-charm.
A stated interval before produce may be used.
A bale of wool or a merchant's mark carved on a monument.
The end of the rope being used to tie.
A laurel or oak wreath framing a decoration's central device.
A circular garland of leaves or flowers, carved or laid on a memorial.
A dotted line showing an edge hidden inside.
A disc bearing the advisor character.
A disc bearing the cannon character.
A disc bearing the chariot character.
A disc bearing the elephant or minister character.
A disc bearing the general or marshal character.
A disc bearing the horse character.
A crossed square at each end of the board.
A blank band across the middle of the board.
A disc bearing the soldier character.
A diagram built to a construction.
A numbered skein icon on a ball band, giving a yarn's thickness category.
A numbered skein icon giving the thickness category of a yarn.
A figure like a person with arms raised, from Tifinagh.
A peacock standing for an angel.
A mark for a letter left out.
A thousand syllables, standardised.
The closing half of a head ornament.
A circle divided by an S-curve into a dark and a light half, each containing a dot of the other.
An alphabet that got smaller.
Mongolian written in Tibetan blocks.
The oldest writing in the Americas.
Thirty-seven symbols annotating Mandarin sound.
A circle with four groups of four rays.
A stylised bird of prey perched on a plinth with a chevron band.
Colours read as a message.
A letter marking a reading unit.