Religious symbols Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP". Common examples of symbols are the symbols used on maps to denote places of interest, such as crossed sabers to indicate a battlefield, and the numerals used to represent numbers. Common psychological symbols are the use of a gun to represent a penis or a tunnel to represent a vagina. [1] See: phallic symbol and yonic symbol. All languages are made up of symbols. The word "cat", whether spoken or written, is not a cat, but is a symbol for a cat.