A system of writing in which the printed symbols represent entire words without relating to pronunciation. The main contemporary example of this system is Chinese whose characters, or logograms, are used with various degrees of modifications in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese and a number of other East Asian languages. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and the writing system of the Mayans also had examples of logographic features.
See Alphabetic writing systems, Kana scripts, Orthography, Syllabary