ideography?

Ideography (also spelled ideogram) is a system of writing in which symbols or pictures are used to represent ideas or concepts rather than the sounds of a particular language. Ideographic writing systems are also sometimes called pictographic or logographic writing systems.

Ideographic writing systems have been used by many different cultures throughout history, and they are often used to convey basic ideas or concepts rather than to represent the sounds of a particular language. Some examples of ancient ideographic writing systems include the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Sumerian cuneiform script, and the Chinese script.

Ideographic writing systems are generally simpler and more concise than phonetic writing systems, which represent the sounds of a language using symbols. However, they are also less precise, as the same symbol or picture can often be interpreted in different ways depending on the context.

Today, ideographic writing systems are not as widely used as phonetic writing systems, but they continue to be an important part of some cultures and languages. For example, the Chinese script is still used to write Chinese and other languages in East Asia, and it includes a combination of ideographic and phonetic characters.