semantogram

Noun

semantogram (plural semantograms)

1. A symbol used solely for meaning, as when logographic Chinese symbols are used to represent the meaning of native Japanese words.
   • "the majority of Jurchen signs, which included both semantograms and phonograms, were inventions."1978, Herbert Franke, Dennis Twitchett, “Introduction”, in The Cambridge History of China, →ISBN, page 32
   • One could write OJ namyi ‘wave’ with the sinograph for a Chinese morpheme of similar meaning: 波 EMC *pa ‘wave.’ 波 *pa ‘wave’ would then be a semantogram for OJ namyi, serving as a translation of OJ namyi without representing its sound.2003, Marc Hideo Miyake, Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   semantograph, ideograph