Definition of "symbolic representation" []

• Something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Parker stared aghast; it might possibly be a symbolic representation of Mrs. Mitcham’s character, for it was very hard and spiky; but it looked more like a Dutch doll, with its triangular nose, like a sharp-edged block of wood, and its eyes mere dots in an expanse of liver-coloured cheek."
• "It is the symbolic representation of the way of the primary edict."
• "Charmian London wrote that "The Water Baby" (Cosmopolitan, September, 1918), London's last written story, "... is clearly a symbolic representation of the Rebirth, the return to the Mother, exemplified by the arguments of the old Hawaiian Kohokumu.""