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A Hieroglyph found on The rocks on Foster Beach in Chicago

A hieroglyph is a character of a logographic or partly logographic writing system. The term originally referred to the Egyptian hieroglyphs used by Ancient Egyptians, but is also applied to the ancient Cretan Luwian, Mayan and Mi'kmaq scripts, and occasionally also to Chinese characters. Ancient Egyptian writing consisted of over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters whereas the English alphabet consists of only 26. Each hieroglyphic character represents a common object from their day.

The word Hieroglyphs derives from the Greek words ἱερός (hierós 'sacred') and γλύφειν (glúphein 'to carve' or 'to write', see glyph), and was first used to describe Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Greeks who came to Egypt prior to and during the Ptolemaic Period (305 BC - 30 BC) observed that while demotic script was employed for secular documents, pictorial characters were frequently found in religious contexts - carved on temple walls and funerary structures, as well as on official monuments.

The word "hieroglyphics" is derived from the fact that the Greeks called Egyptian hieroglyphs τά ἱερογλυφικά γράμματα 'hieroglyphic letters'; however, they sometimes simply dropped the word γράμματα, "letters", calling them τά ἱερογλυφικά 'the hieroglyphics' ('letters' being understood). This was used in informal use.

In the same way, although the term "hieroglyphics" is still used today, this usage adds a tone of informality (such as in the above example of Greek practice). An alternative is to use the noun "hieroglyphs" for both the language as a whole and for the individual characters that compose it, or to use the term "hieroglyphic" as an adjective (e.g., a hieroglyphic writing system).

• Hieroglyphica see also "Conversations with Mariam"

• Andrew Robinson (2007). MAS214, Macquarie University Text Book,The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms, London: Thames & Hudson.