Notation vs. Symbol: What's the Difference?
Notation and Symbol Definitions
Notation
A system of figures or symbols used in a specialized field to represent numbers, quantities, tones, or values
Musical notation.
Symbol
Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible
The lamb is a symbol of innocence.
Notation
The act or process of using such a system.
Symbol
An instance that typifies a broader pattern or situation
His striking out to end the rally was a symbol of everything that had gone wrong with the team over the past month.
Notation
A brief note; an annotation
Marginal notations.
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Symbol
A printed or written sign used to represent an operation, element, quantity, quality, or relation, as in mathematics or music.
Notation
(uncountable) The act, process, method, or an instance of representing by a system or set of marks, signs, figures, or characters.
Symbol
(Psychology) An object or image that an individual unconsciously uses to represent repressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses
A phallic symbol.
Notation
(uncountable) A system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in an art or science or in mathematics or logic to express technical facts or quantities.
This section lists all algebraic notation used in this book. (Using notations would be incorrect).
The notations used in the two books differed. (Using notation would be incorrect).
Symbol
A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.
$ is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries.
Chinese people use word symbols for writing.
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Notation
(countable) A specific note or piece of information written in such a notation.
She made a notation in the margin of the book.
Symbol
A thing considered the embodiment of a concept or object.
The lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or patience.
Notation
The act or practice of recording anything by marks, figures, or characters.
Symbol
(linguistics) A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent. See also icon and index.
Notation
Any particular system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in art or science, to express briefly technical facts, quantities, etc.
Symbol
A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.
The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols.
Notation
Literal or etymological signification.
"Conscience" is a Latin word, and, according to the very notation of it, imports a double or joint knowledge.
Symbol
(crystallography) The numerical expression which defines a plane's position relative to the assumed axes.
Notation
A technical system of symbols used to represent special things
Symbol
(obsolete) That which is thrown into a common fund; hence, an appointed or accustomed duty.
Notation
A comment or instruction (usually added);
His notes were appended at the end of the article
He added a short notation to the address on the envelope
Symbol
(obsolete) Share; allotment.
Notation
The activity of representing something by a special system of marks or characters
Symbol
(programming) An internal identifier used by a debugger to relate parts of the compiled program to the corresponding names in the source code.
Symbol
(telecommunications) A signalling event on a communications channel; a signal that cannot be further divided into meaningful information.
Symbol
To symbolize.
Symbol
A visible sign or representation of an idea; anything which suggests an idea or quality, or another thing, as by resemblance or by convention; an emblem; a representation; a type; a figure; as, the lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or patience.
A symbol is a sign included in the idea which it represents, e. g., an actual part chosen to represent the whole, or a lower form or species used as the representative of a higher in the same kind.
Symbol
Any character used to represent a quantity, an operation, a relation, or an abbreviation.
Symbol
An abstract or compendium of faith or doctrine; a creed, or a summary of the articles of religion.
Symbol
That which is thrown into a common fund; hence, an appointed or accustomed duty.
They do their work in the days of peace . . . and come to pay their symbol in a war or in a plague.
Symbol
Share; allotment.
The persons who are to be judged . . . shall all appear to receive their symbol.
Symbol
An abbreviation standing for the name of an element and consisting of the initial letter of the Latin or New Latin name, or sometimes of the initial letter with a following one; as, C for carbon, Na for sodium (Natrium), Fe for iron (Ferrum), Sn for tin (Stannum), Sb for antimony (Stibium), etc. See the list of names and symbols under Element.
Symbol
To symbolize.
Symbol
An arbitrary sign (written or printed) that has acquired a conventional significance
Symbol
Something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible;
The eagle is a symbol of the United States
