rebus

«rebus» in Mova's school dictionary: A puzzle in which pictures, letters, numbers or symbols… — 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

noun (a rebus, rebuses)

meaning for a pupil

1) A puzzle in which pictures, letters, numbers or symbols stand for words or parts of words: a picture of an eye + a heart + a ewe = «I love you». tree →

2) A coat of arms or design whose picture is a pun on a family's name. tree →

sense in the lessons

Rebuses are popular word puzzles in school and in puzzle books; they train thinking about sounds. «2 B or not 2 B». Lewis Carroll and Kipling loved word games; rebuses are a cousin of their puns. In history, early writing used rebus ideas: a picture for a sound helped turn pictures into letters.

examples

• Can you solve this rebus: a picture of a bee and a leaf means «belief»? tree →
• We made our own rebus puzzles in class. tree →
• «I C U» is a simple rebus. tree →
• The family's coat of arms was a rebus on their name. tree →
• Early writing used the rebus idea to spell sounds. tree →
• The rebus puzzle had a picture of a sun and a flower: sunflower. tree →

note

Plural: rebuses. Said «REE-bus». From Latin «rebus», «by things».

In the corpora

• The rebus trick uses a picture for its sound: a bee and a leaf can spell «belief».

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «rebus» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.