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Cuneiform vs Hieroglyphic - What's the difference?

cuneiform | hieroglyphic |

As adjectives the difference between cuneiform and hieroglyphic

is that cuneiform is having the form of a wedge; wedge-shaped, especially with a tapered end while hieroglyphic is of, relating to, or written with this system of symbols.

As nouns the difference between cuneiform and hieroglyphic

is that cuneiform is an ancient mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating as pictograms in sumer around the 30th century bc, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reed stylus on clay tablets while hieroglyphic is (chiefly|in the plural) a writing system of ancient egypt, minoans, maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds as a rebus.

cuneiform

English

(wikipedia cuneiform)

Alternative forms

* cuniform

Adjective

(-)
  • Having the form of a wedge; wedge-shaped, especially with a tapered end.
  • * 1936 , W. Frank Calderon, Animal Painting and Anatomy , page 297
    • The cuneiform tendon is always sharply defined when the hock is flexed by the action of the muscle.
  • * 1952 , Aileen Fox, Roman Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum): Excavations in the War-damaged Areas, 1945-1947 , page 69
    • The cuneiform leaf is not the characteristic heart-shaped early form (O. and P. , p. 241).
  • Written in the writing system.
  • * 1911 , Alvin Sylvester Zerbe, The Antiquity of Hebrew Writing and Literature , page 182
    • There, too, it was originally the vulgar script in contrast with the official cuneiform script employed for all official documents, compacts, etc.
  • * 2000 , Jöran Friberg, A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts , page ix
    • The text is inscribed on a clay tablet of a very unusual format. The only other known mathematical cuneiform' text on a clay tablet of a similar format is also the only previously known Kassite (and therefore post-Old-Babylonian) mathematical ' cuneiform text.

    Synonyms

    * wedgelike * wedgy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An ancient Mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating as pictograms in Sumer around the 30th century BC, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reed stylus on clay tablets.
  • (anatomy) A wedge-shaped bone, especially a cuneiform bone.

    • Derived terms

    * cuneiformist

    hieroglyphic

    English

    typical of the Graeco-Roman period.

    Alternative forms

    * hieroglyphick

    Noun

    (wikipedia hieroglyphic) (en noun)
  • (chiefly, in the plural) a writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds as a rebus
  • any symbol used in this system; a hieroglyph
  • (by extension) undecipherable handwriting or secret symbol

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • of, relating to, or written with this system of symbols
    • hieroglyphic writing
    hieroglyphic obelisk
  • difficult to decipher