Rebus facts for kids
A rebus is a picture, letter, number, or symbol that is used to represent a different word that has a similar pronunciation. In English, if a person was writing the sentence "I see you tonight" in a text message, the person might write "⊙ L C U 2nite", in which the symbol "⊙", which is a picture of an eye, represents the word "I" because it sounds the same, "L" stands for the contracted "will" as in "I'll", the letter "C" represents the word "see", the letter "U" represents the word "you", the number "2" represents the word "to", and the word "nite" is represents the word "night".
Images for kids
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A rebus-style "escort card" from around 1865, to be read as "May I see you home my dear?"
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A German rebus, circa 1620
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Ramesses II as child: Hieroglyphs: Ra-mes-su
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A rebus sent to Voltaire by Frederick the Great – Supper tomorrow at Sanssouci?
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Bishop Oldham's owl-dom rebus as carved in the wall of his chantry in Exeter Cathedral
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A rebus for the names of Japanese provinces, from around 1800
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A bottle of Yamato Shizuku (やまと しずく, Japan droplet) sake (name spelt out at top right), with a rebus ∧ト💧 which is read as yama (山, mountain) (symbolized by the ∧) + to (ト, katakana character for to) + shizuku (雫, droplet) (symbolized by the 💧)
See also
In Spanish: Jeroglífico (pasatiempo) para niños
