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# symbolically

«symbolically» in Mova's school dictionary: **in a way that uses a symbol to stand for an idea, rather…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adverb (symbolically)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Symbolically means in a way that uses a symbol to stand for an idea, rather than in a real or practical way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#m1)

2) In maths, symbolically means using signs and letters, like + and x, instead of words. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In religious education, actions are done symbolically: in baptism water symbolically washes away sin, and Christians share bread and wine symbolically or as a sacrament to remember Jesus. In stories and poems, a storm may symbolically show a character's anger. In maths, a word problem can be written symbolically, like "x + 3 = 7". Phrases: "symbolically important", "act symbolically", "written symbolically".

### examples

- The dove symbolically stands for peace. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x1)
- At the end of the year we symbolically handed the class key to the next year group. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x2)
- (church) In baptism, water symbolically washes the person clean. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x3)
- In the story, the dark forest symbolically shows the girl's fear. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x4)
- We wrote the problem symbolically as 3 × n = 12. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x5)
- Planting a tree was a symbolically important start for the new school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/#x6)

### note

Adjective: symbolic; noun: symbol; verb: symbolise (UK) / symbolize (US). Something done symbolically matters for its meaning, not its practical effect: cutting a ribbon symbolically opens a building. Spelled with -ically: symbolic + -ally.

### In the corpora

- [Christians believe God can act in the world; sceptics doubt that miracles happen; some Christians read some miracle stories symbolically.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/16-the-miracles-of-jesus/17/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «symbolically» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/symbolically/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.