Rebus
A rebus is a puzzle that spells out a word or phrase using pictures, letters, numbers or symbols that stand for sounds, rather than writing the word in full.
Picture an eye, a heart and a sheep. Say the words aloud: eye, heart, ewe. "I love you." That is a rebus: pictures that stand for sounds, read together as a phrase.
How rebuses work
A rebus uses several tricks, often at once.
- Picture for sound. A bee and a leaf read as "belief".
- Position. The word "stand" written above the word "I" reads as "I understand".
- Letters and numbers. "4" for "for", "U" for "you", as in a text message.
- Subtraction. Cross out the first letter of a pictured word, and a new word remains.
The form is old. Heraldic badges used rebuses for family names, such as a bell and a tun (barrel) for a man named Bolton. Medieval and Renaissance puzzle books were full of them.
Why it matters to a writer or editor
A rebus is a lesson in how sound and spelling are separate. Text-message shorthand and emoji strings are modern rebuses, and anyone writing for social media or children will meet them. For an editor, rebus-style wordplay is a reminder to check how a phrase sounds as well as how it reads: homophones are the hidden engine of the form. It is a close cousin of the pun and the riddle, and puzzle collections often list the rebus alongside the crossword.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the word rebus come from?
From the Latin for 'by things', meaning a message conveyed through objects instead of words.
What is a simple example of a rebus?
A picture of an eye, a heart and a ewe reads 'I love you'. Each picture stands for the sound of a word.
Are rebuses only for fun?
They also appear in heraldry, where a family shows its name as a picture, and in emoji messages, which work the same way.