Symbolically

//ˌsɪmˈbɒlɪklɪ// adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a symbolic manner.

    "Haha, memes are funny! Until they totally become racist. Pepe the Frog lived a very normal meme life right up until online trolls turned him into a green thing of hate in 2016. It got so bad his creator symbolically killed him off in 2017."

  2. 2
    By means of symbols or a symbol.
  3. 3
    As symbols or a symbol.

    "In the end, the deadlock was resolved by a minor -- but for the National Party symbolically important -- addition to one of the other subsections of the language clause."

Adverb
  1. 1
    in a symbolic manner wordnet
  2. 2
    by means of symbols wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
as it were

Example

More examples

"“I fluctuate between wanting to mark Brexit quietly but symbolically with some friends in Berlin, or just staying home with my husband and going across the road to our local bar for a couple of strong cocktails. Or maybe just going to bed and hiding under the duvet. Whatever I end up doing, the mood deep down will be sadness,” she said."

Etymology

From symbolical + -ly or symbolic + -ally.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.