In literature, symbols are often characters, settings, images, or other motifs that stand in for bigger ideas.

Anything can be a symbol, if we make it one. Einstein symbolizes genius in our culture. However, symbols don’t have to be the kind of things you only find on keyboards. And of course, we have all sorts of visual symbols that we use every day: $ & = Similarly, every word is a symbol for the idea it represents. It could be as simple as a letter, which is a symbol for a given sound (or set of sounds). A symbol (pronounced SIM-bull) is any image or thing that stands for something else.