How to Use symbolic in a Sentence

symbolic

adjective
  • The lighting of the candles is symbolic.
  • The sharing of the wine has symbolic meaning.
  • A lot of the strikes in the past 20 years have been symbolic more than strategic.
    — Emmett Lindner, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Zoom out: This is the Year of the Snake, which is itself symbolic.
    — Carly Mallenbaum, Axios, 28 Jan. 2025
  • There's a gallery wall with pieces that are symbolic of some sort of lyric.
    — Bryan West, USA Today, 19 July 2025
  • One horn, to me, is symbolic of the split half — like the trapeze, maybe one side weighs more than the other.
    — Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2022
  • The scene with the needle, which goes deep into the vein, was very symbolic.
    — Holly Jones, Variety, 19 Feb. 2024
  • For Yang, at least, the drop in pay is largely symbolic.
    — Lionel Lim, Fortune, 14 Dec. 2023
  • Katie Hunt reports that the choice of bone may have been symbolic as well.
    — Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 July 2021
  • But for those who work in wine, the moment is symbolic.
    — Jessica Dupuy, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025
  • All sorts of things are thrown into the fires, like wood, leaves and food, in a symbolic purge of evil and triumph of good.
    — Hari Kumar, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
  • And the campaign sees it as symbolic of the good a president can do.
    — Mike Allen, Axios, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Today the role of the Maori monarch is largely symbolic.
    — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Its colors of red, black, and green are symbolic of the Pan-African movement.
    — Taylor Crumpton, Essence, 19 June 2024
  • At what point in your work did that hit you that this anecdote is so symbolic of his life?
    — Brendan O'Meara, Longreads, 20 June 2022
  • In the art world, cherries are symbolic of wealth and decadence.
    — Esther Newman, refinery29.com, 6 Sep. 2024
  • The awards feel symbolic, not only of his success as an artist, but as a son.
    — Mitchell Kuga, Billboard, 9 June 2023
  • Stevens says the push from schools like Amherst is, more than anything, symbolic.
    — Nicole Laporte, Town & Country, 30 Mar. 2022
  • The job is just to be a symbolic representation of the UK.
    — Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 13 Mar. 2024
  • And in an equally symbolic move, the Chinese side said that for now, the brandies would have a reprieve.
    — Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2024
  • The first, from a symbolic perspective, is your life right now.
    — Amy Raasch, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
  • Because of the size of the school districts’ budgets, the cuts are more symbolic than harmful to the district.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 20 Aug. 2021
  • Because of the size of the districts' budgets, the cuts are more symbolic than harmful.
    — Compiled Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 21 Aug. 2021
  • Lane adds that the ring Erich ended up with felt symbolic of their journey.
    — Hedy Phillips, Peoplemag, 21 Sep. 2022
  • Her arc becomes the emotional and symbolic core of the film.
    — Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 20 May 2025
  • The Black vote must evolve from a tool of symbolic support to a lever for real, lasting change.
    — Christopher Anderson, Baltimore Sun, 21 Nov. 2024
  • The action is likely to have little more than symbolic impact for the singer, who lives in Ukraine.
    — Ivan Nechepurenko, New York Times, 20 Nov. 2023
  • Most of those past campaigns had been quixotic, symbolic, and, in the end, futile.
    — Marianne Mather, Chicago Tribune, 25 Nov. 2022
  • The final image of Arda Guler before the players’ summer break was a symbolic one for Real Madrid’s young playmaker.
    — Mario Cortegana, New York Times, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Their deaths marked not just the end of two singular careers, but the symbolic closing of a cultural chapter — one where larger-than-life personas still had to be built in real time, without hashtags or viral cycles to carry them.
    — Arkansas Online, 14 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'symbolic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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