logogram (or ideogram)

In hieroglyphic writing a logogram is a sign that has at one and the same time a determinate semantic content and a determinate phonological content. This differentiates it from a pictogram such as the sign that tells you where to go to the bathroom in the airport, a sign that has only semantic value and which can be interpreted by speakers of any language. A hieroglyphic logogram may designate therefore a real or an imaginary entity, but it can only be read in a determinate and arbitrarily fixed manner, in the Egyptian language.