<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>A symbol that represents a speech sound, syllable, or other sequence of speech sounds without reference to meaning, such as a letter in the Latin alphabet.</li></ul><p><strong>Linguistics:</strong></p><ul><li>The scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics.</li></ul><p><strong>Compare:</strong></p><ul><li>Ideogram (def 1): A written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it.</li><li>Logogram (def 1): A written character that represents a word or phrase.</li></ul>