A
hieroglyph (
Greek for "
sacred writing") is a
character of the
ancient Egyptian writing system.
Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In
Neoplatonism, especially during the
Renaissance, a "hieroglyph" was an artistic representation of an esoteric idea, which Neoplatonists believed actual Egyptian hieroglyphs to be. The word
hieroglyphics may refer to a hieroglyphic script.