Definition of "symbolic" []

• Of, relating to, or expressed by means of symbols or a symbol. (adjective)
• Serving as a symbol. (adjective)
• Using symbolism: symbolic art. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Many others followed Drucker; Robert Reich coined the phrase "symbolic analysts" much the same as Drucker's "knowledge workers" for those trained to use information in a way that allowed them to thrive in a shifting, information-rich networked world."
• "Nomos Alpha, from 1966, is an example of what he called symbolic music, in which the order of musical events is determined according to mathematical rules, while Kottos, composed 11 years later, is a portrait of one of the giants from Greek mythology who fought with Zeus against the Titans."
• "The whole symbolism thing would be stupid and meaningless, except that the symbolic is at least as important as the substantial to the pathologically biased and absurd human being."