runes

Noun

rune (plural runes)

1. A letter, or character, used in the written language of various ancient Germanic peoples, especially the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons.
   • Yet they made for man those mystic swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs.1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 14
2. A letter from any visually similar script, such as Hungarian runes (the Old Hungarian script) or Turkic runes (the Old Turkic script).
3. A Finnic or Scandinavian epic poem, or a division of one, especially a division of the Kalevala.
4. A letter or mark used as a mystical or magic symbol.
   • And the sword that had visited Earth from so far away smote like the falling of thunderbolts [...] and the runes in Alveric’s far-travelled sword exulted, and roared at the elf-knight; until in the dark of the wood, amongst branches severed from disenchanted trees, with a blow like that of a...1924, Lord Dunsany, chapter III, in The King of Elfland's Daughter, New York: G.P. Puttnam's Sons, page 30
5. A verse or song, especially one with mystical or mysterious overtones; a spell or an incantation.
   • Where the daylight peeps thro' like the glint of the Moon, / And the branches are rustling a murmurous rune, / The Owls sit in council like prophets of Fate, / Discussing grave questions of Kingdom and State.1895 June 22, Louis Wain, “Owls”, in Illustrated London News, volume 106, number 2931, page 28

   Synonyms:

   enchantment, hex, cantrip, chantment, charm, conjuration, craft, dwimmer, incantation, magic

6. A Unicode code point.
   • Go language defines the type rune as an alias for the type int32 to represent a Unicode code point. A string in Go is a sequence of runes.2016, Shiju Varghese, Go Recipes, Apress, →ISBN, page 12

See all 7 meanings of rune