noun, noun which may take the genitive case particle 'no'
hieroglyphics; pictographic writing
Refers to ancient writing systems that use pictures to represent words or sounds, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs. Not limited to Chinese characters.
エジプトの象形文字は神聖文字とも呼ばれる。
Egyptian hieroglyphics are also called sacred characters.
noun
pictograph; character representing an object
In the context of Chinese character classification (六書), one of the six categories: a character that originated as a stylized drawing of the object it represents, such as 山 (mountain) or 日 (sun).
See also: 六書
「山」は象形文字の一つで、山の形からできた。
"山" is one of the pictographic characters, derived from the shape of a mountain.
形声 are phono-semantic compounds with a semantic and a phonetic component, unlike 象形 which are purely pictorial.
From Chinese 象形 (xiàngxíng), literally 'shape form'. The term is used in the traditional classification of Chinese characters (六書) and was later extended to refer to hieroglyphic writing systems in general.