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Icon vs Avatar - What's the difference?

icon | avatar |

As nouns the difference between icon and avatar

is that icon is an , symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion while avatar is in Hinduism the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.

icon

English

(wikipedia icon)

Alternative forms

* eikon, ikon

Noun

(en noun)
  • An image, symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion.
  • A religious painting, often done on wooden panels.
  • A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.
    • That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.
  • A small picture which represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function.)
  • (linguistics) A type of noun whereby the form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons. See also (symbol) and (index).
  • Pictual representations of files, programs and folders on a computer.

    • Derived terms

    * aniconic, aniconism * iconism

    Related terms

    * iconic * iconoclasm, iconoclast, iconoclastic * iconify * iconography * iconstasis

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    avatar

    English

    Alternative forms

    * avatara (rare) * Avator (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • In Hinduism the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
  • The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification.
  • * 1886 , Robert Louis Stevenson, dedicatory letter to Kidnapped [contrasting the historical Alan Breac with his incarnation in the novel].
    • And honest Alan, who was a grim fire-eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid...
  • (computing, or, gaming) A digital representation or handle of a person or being; often, it can take on any of various forms, as a participant chooses. i.e. 3D, animated, photo, sketch of a person or a person's alter ego, sometimes used in a virtual world or virtual chat room.
  • * 1992 (Neal Stephenson), (Snow Crash)
    • The people are pieces of software called avatars . They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.
  • * '>citation

    • See also

    References

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