Word.ws English Dictionary

symbol pusher

symbol pusher noun: someone who engages in symbol pushing; someone solving mathematical problems by manipulating symbols (as in algebra) rather than through visual or intuitive understanding.

Noun

symbol pusher (plural symbol pushers)

  1. (derogatory) Someone who engages in symbol pushing; someone solving mathematical problems by manipulating symbols (as in algebra) rather than through visual or intuitive understanding.
    • That is to say, in both cases we have in mind an intended model or structure for our theory. We are not in the position of mere "symbol pushers."1985, Jerry R. Hobbs, Robert C. Moore, Formal Theories of the Commonsense World, Ablex Pub., →ISBN, page 444
    • […] it is clear that the symbol pusher does not understand Chinese at all; he is only following meaningless instructions. Because computer models, particularly of the symbolic variety, are merely manipulating symbols, and hence understand nothing about what they are doing, they are poor models.2003, Thomas R. Shultz, Computational Developmental Psychology, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 227

Forms of symbol pusher

pluralsymbol pushers

Origin of symbol pusher

From symbol pushing + -er.

Questions about symbol pusher

What does symbol pusher mean?
Symbol pusher means someone who engages in symbol pushing; someone solving mathematical problems by manipulating symbols (as in algebra) rather than through visual or intuitive understanding.
What part of speech is symbol pusher?
Symbol pusher is a noun.
What is the plural of symbol pusher?
The plural of symbol pusher is symbol pushers.

Words near symbol pusher in the dictionary

  1. symblepharons
  2. symblomatic
  3. symbol
  4. symbol group
  5. symbol groups
  6. symbol pusher
  7. symbol pushers
  8. symbol pushing
  9. symbol table
  10. symbol tables
  11. symbol-pushing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: symbol pusher (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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