How to Use hieroglyphic in a Sentence

hieroglyphic

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of hieroglyphicnext
Synonyms for hieroglyphicnext
  • In the top of the loaf, Blackley carved the hieroglyphic for bread bun.
    — Maria Lovato, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Mayan statues flanked the stairs, and the theater had hieroglyphic-like figures around the top of the ceiling.
    — Dan Austin, Detroit Free Press, 1 Sep. 2017
  • Pieces had broken off, not just from its hieroglyphic text but from the Demotic and Greek texts as well.
    — The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
  • No flip-wrist band with hieroglyphic shorthand for who all must make this spring football thing work.
    — Roy S. Johnson | [email protected], al, 18 Feb. 2022
  • It’s by a couture house called Madeleine & Madeleine, and it is all covered in hieroglyphic embroidery.
    — Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 23 July 2019
  • Sheets of paper with the ink draining off into hieroglyphic smears.
    — New York Times, 14 Oct. 2022
  • Inside the New Kingdom tombs, which date back to the 1500s B.C., alabaster statues of the tombs' owners were discovered still intact inside, with hieroglyphic text in blue.
    — Charlene Gubash, NBC News, 27 May 2023
  • The landscape of the ancient Maya is stippled with ruins whose names are unknown to scholars and whose hieroglyphic inscriptions mention scores of places, the locations of which are now lost.
    — Franz Lidz Meghan Dhaliwal, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2022
  • In place of three simple vertical lines on square 28 of early senet boards, for example, some now had three hieroglyphic birds that Egyptians used to symbolize the soul.
    — Colin Barras, Science | AAAS, 6 Feb. 2020
  • The first inscription is in classic hieroglyphics, the next is in a simplified hieroglyphic script known as Demotic, and the third is in Ancient Greek.
    — Jack B. Jeffery, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Nov. 2022
  • A hieroglyphic inscription identifies the shroud’s owner as the son of an official named Montsuef and his wife Tanuat.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 28 Mar. 2017
  • Some, like the Aztec and Maya, had hieroglyphic systems, but those symbols offered little insight into the spoken languages themselves.
    — Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 May 2023
  • This 2011 discovery in El Zotz, Guatemala, revealed the remains of a Mayan king who was previously known only from hieroglyphic accounts.
    — Nick Romeo, National Geographic, 14 Mar. 2017
  • Looking back, food has always played a role in art: Stone Age cave painters used vegetable juice and animal fats as binding ingredients in their paints, and the Egyptians carved pictographs of crops and bread on hieroglyphic tablets.
    — Sharon Butler, Smithsonian, 13 Jan. 2017
  • That meant the demotic and hieroglyphic portions would be similar to the Greek text, and for the first time ever, scholars had a shot at understanding the mysterious symbols.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 29 Dec. 2022
  • Prince renovated it in the ’90s as his purple-pleasure palace Glam Slam, complete with a Victorian bed and his hieroglyphic logo embedded in the dance floor.
    — August Brownstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2023
  • They’re all written in a foreign language only a hieroglyphic lawyer can decipher.
    — J.d. Crowe | [email protected], al, 20 Oct. 2020
  • Early adopters are using these hieroglyphic identifiers, called Yats, as URLs.
    — Rachel Wolfe, WSJ, 8 Feb. 2022
  • The original tattooed woman assessed by Austin has cross patterns on her arms and hieroglyphic-like elements elsewhere.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 5 Dec. 2019
  • But software still hides functions behind hieroglyphic icons and impossible-to-guess finger swipes.
    — Geoffrey A. Fowler, WSJ, 9 Aug. 2017
  • No athlete anywhere will ever have a mid-motion logo as triumphantly hieroglyphic as his, the silhouette as sentence.
    — Wesley Morris, New York Times, 19 Apr. 2020
  • Evidence of the importance of the ‘stinking rose’ in ancient Egyptian culture can be found in the form of hieroglyphic inscriptions, illustrations and sculptures discovered in the tombs of pharaohs—along with traces of actual garlic.
    — Popular Science, 22 Oct. 2020
  • Trottinettes—those narrow, elegant scooters—glide among the lanes, their drivers perfectly erect, one foot behind the other, like hieroglyphic Egyptian figures.
    — Roxana Robinson, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2021
  • Despite having no idea what the hieroglyphic symbols meant, French archaeologist Georges Perrot supposedly copied the entire inscription for his records before the limestone was taken away by the villagers and used to build a new mosque.
    — Ben Panko, Smithsonian, 12 Oct. 2017
  • Today’s Mustafa Marie reports that the archaeologists examined hieroglyphic inscriptions on the lids of wine vessels and other containers for clues to the city’s history.
    — Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Apr. 2021
  • The ancient Maya were skilled farmers and developed the science of astronomy, calendar systems and hieroglyphic writing.
    — Ana Gershanik, NOLA.com, 11 Apr. 2018
  • Its pyramids and temples are better preserved than those at Chichen Itza, with clearly visible intricate hieroglyphic carvings.
    — Shivani Vora, https://www.inquirer.com, 6 June 2019
  • The peninsula is the likely location of several missing ancient kingdoms — mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions, but lost to time.
    — Whitney Leaming, Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Walls were seen decorated with hieroglyphic inscriptions and images of sacred animals and after-life items used by ancient Egyptians.
    — Samy Magdy, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2022
  • The Maya created a distinctive system of hieroglyphic writing.
    — Elizabeth Landau, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 June 2020
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hieroglyphic

2 of 2 noun
  • Players can see the gold and blue of the sphinx, and the rich browns, blues and greens of the hieroglyphics and murals on the temple walls.
    — Justin Porter, New York Times, 16 May 2018
  • In one room, a wall of hieroglyphics flanks a pyramid-themed fish tank.
    — Jack Flemming, latimes.com, 18 May 2018
  • There, a 20-foot tall obelisk and pedestal, inscribed with hieroglyphics and Greek, caught Bankes' eye.
    — Smithsonian, 19 Apr. 2017
  • In Alexandria, at about the same time, a slab of igneous rock etched with Greek and hieroglyphics was packed onto a 40-gun ship and made to brave the waves of the Mediterranean.
    — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 20 Sep. 2023
  • The saucer was covered in hieroglyphics when the men discovered it in 1957.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 20 Feb. 2018
  • The posing seen in Old Way is very similar to the characters drawn in the hieroglyphics found in Egypt.
    — Rooney, Teen Vogue, 30 June 2017
  • By the time the interview was done, my notes were as legible as a giant block of hieroglyphics.
    — Mary Schmich, chicagotribune.com, 23 Aug. 2019
  • There's also a vast collection of hieroglyphics and the sacred tomb of King Pakal.
    — Christin Parcerisa Vigueras, Travel + Leisure, 11 Apr. 2023
  • Each was the son of a local governor, according to the hieroglyphics.
    — Ben Guarino, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2018
  • Advertisement The main stage is framed by an arch of mini glowing UFOs and alien hieroglyphics awash in purple and green lights.
    — Nate Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
  • And making this scene feel authentic required more than etching a few hieroglyphics on the walls.
    — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 22 Aug. 2023
  • The farmers, truckers and others who traverse these rural roads, though, could quickly tell you what the hieroglyphics mean: Help.
    — Patricia Cohen, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2020
  • The cover is etched with scientific hieroglyphics that spell out our star’s address among the nearest pulsars, as well as the unit of time for the record’s speed and instructions to play it.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 20 July 2023
  • Three songs inscribed in hieroglyphics at Luxor reveal the words chanted by priests and priestesses.
    — National Geographic, 25 June 2019
  • But by now the rovás are part of the nationalist imaginary, the hieroglyphics of the ancient Turantan-Magyar race.
    — Jacob Mikanowski, Harper's magazine, 21 July 2019
  • In Ancient Egypt, the tombs of royals were covered in hieroglyphics and intricate burial tableaux.
    — Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 26 Apr. 2017
  • After it was pried open, a book made of 17 thin copper sheets, each one inscribed with additional hieroglyphics, was found inside.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 20 Feb. 2018
  • They are adorned with intricate carvings and designs, including Egyptian deities, hieroglyphics and scenes from the Book of the Dead, a series of spells that enabled the soul to navigate the afterlife.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN, 19 Oct. 2019
  • Researchers opened the coffin in June to take pictures of the hieroglyphics underneath, according to Mashable, and found human feet, ankles and other bones.
    — Josh Magness, miamiherald, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Though the writing on the slab has not been translated by the Antiquities Ministry, Jarus shared images of the hieroglyphics with Egyptologists.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 7 Apr. 2017
  • Bare, empty, and just waiting for his special hieroglyphics.
    — Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 22 May 2017
  • Hieroglyphics show the very first perfumers were Egyptian priests who used aromatic resins to make the scent of sacrificial offerings a tad sweeter.
    — Kelsey Kloss, ELLE Decor, 5 Aug. 2016
  • How can Egyptian hieroglyphics help us with that conundrum?
    — National Geographic, 20 Nov. 2016
  • Yet even unreadable texts—cuneiforms, hieroglyphics, glyphs—declare (even before they are decoded) the solid existence of the past.
    — Helen Vendler, Harper's magazine, 20 Jan. 2020
  • New emojis require the approval of a group called the Unicode Consortium, which oversees this pantheon of modern hieroglyphics among other efforts to standardize text across the Web.
    — Chris Wilson, Time, 26 Sep. 2017
  • Below the sphinx was a stone slab covered in hieroglyphics and script, though no translations have been made, reports Hyperallergic’s Rhea Nayyar.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Despite the presence of video displays that explain the material, many non-architects, to whom the drawings will be as understandable as hieroglyphics, are likely to be put off.
    — Blair Kamin, chicagotribune.com, 11 June 2017
  • The board lacks the hieroglyphics symbolizing the soul, but square 27—which in earlier boards featured a simple X—now carries a hieroglyphic symbol for water.
    — Colin Barras, Science | AAAS, 6 Feb. 2020
  • Inspired by two-dimensional hieroglyphics, the dance is punctuated by the Graham technique, with stylish poses that accent the two-movement pas de deux.
    — Sharma Howard, courant.com, 25 July 2017
  • To the average recreational golfer, the books might resemble something like hieroglyphics.
    — Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press, 26 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hieroglyphic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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