pictographic

A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and also an ‘icon’, is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to a considerable extent pictorial in appearance. Pictography is a form of writing which uses representational, pictorial drawings, similarly to cuneiform and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which also uses drawings as phonetic letters or determinative rhymes. In certain modern use, pictograms participate to a formal language (e.g. Hazards pictograms).