icon

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An image; a representation.
• noun A representation or picture of a sacred or sanctified Christian personage, traditionally used and venerated in the Eastern Church.
• noun An important and enduring symbol.
• noun One who is the object of great attention and devotion; an idol.
• noun Computers A picture on a screen that represents a specific file, directory, window, option, or program.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An abbreviation of iconographic; of iconography.
• noun An image or representation; a portrait.
• noun In the Greek or Orthodox Eastern Church, a representation of Christ, an angel, or a saint, in painting, relief, mosaic. etc.
• noun In logic, a sign or representation which stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it.
• noun In scientific books, specifically, a plate, an engraving, or other printed representation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An image or representation; a portrait or pretended portrait.
• noun (Gr. Ch.) A sacred picture representing the Virgin Mary, Christ, a saint, or a martyr, and having the same function as an image of such a person in the Latin Church. The term is used especially for a highly stylized and conventionalized representation of a holy person, rich in symbolism and used in devotional services in many of the eastern Orthodox churches, especially the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches.
• noun a symbol, especially a symbol whose form suggests its meaning or the object it represents.
• noun (Computers) a graphical symbol for a data object whose form suggests the nature or function of the object; especially, such a symbol as viewed on the computer screen.
• noun any object of uncritical devotion.
• noun an outstanding example of something which has come to represent the class of things to which it belongs; a paragon; used of persons as well as objects.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun An image, symbol, picture, or other representation usually as an object of religious devotion.
• noun A religious painting, often done on wooden panels.
• noun A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.
• noun A small picture which represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function.)
• noun linguistics A type of noun whereby the form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons. See also symbol and index.
• noun Pictual representations of files, programs and folders on a computer.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
• noun (computer science) a graphic symbol (usually a simple picture) that denotes a program or a command or a data file or a concept in a graphical user interface
• noun a conventional religious painting in oil on a small wooden panel; venerated in the Eastern Church