We are sure that during school classes you have heard about such words as synonyms, antonyms and homonyms. First word we use when we want to replace the initial word to something similar, second word stands for opposite meaning of initial word and the third we use when we find different meanings of initial word that by spelling are quite the same.

As we usually talk about All Icons, their types, way of use and creating so today we will touch the word “Icon” itself and discover what other definitions it has.

Let us imagine a conversation between several people that believe in different definitions of this word:

-Have you seen new Alchemist Icons with signature of Paulo Coelho?-Peter

-Yeah…Paulo Coelho is a real icon,-Jack

- Paulo Coelho is an icon? You are so far from religion!-Mary

- Oh, really can I find some icons at iconsbank.com?-Bob

Now we will find out about what icons all these people were talking about, so first was Peter.

The word icon is translated from Greek as a picture. So the first definition of icons is very simple: an image. So Peter was talking about visual interpretation of famous book, maybe they decided to republish this book using new cover or pictures inside of it.

Now let us speak about Jack, as we could see he has another point of view about icons. The second definition of this word is an idol. So now it is quite clear to us what he meant, he thought that Paulo Coelho is a very popular person in literature world or maybe he is an example showing how other writers ought to write or to behave. Maybe you agree with him, maybe not, but let us not argue and stay indifferent, because we have also other meanings.

We could discover by Mary’s intonation that she was indignant by Jack words and there is nothing unexpected in it and the next definition will tell you about it. So the third definition is also in the translation of this word from Greek, because also this word means representation of Christian religious painting. Only saint people could be painted at icons - they were done in oil on a little board of wood. At icons you can see traditional sacred symbols, history of Christianity and also Christian believe that icons contain something that you can’t see with your eyes. Nowadays the school of iconography doesn’t exist anymore, that is also the reason why Christian icons are so exclusive.

Now we have to come back to our Earth because we got another point of view from Bob. Bob like lots of people at present days is a fan of Internet, so it is not surprisingly he knows this word from computer science. So the forth definition is a graphic sign that symbolizes some functions you can use or some directories, files you can open, etc.

Of cause it is not a problem to determine what icon are people talking about by the accompanying words they use “Christian Icons”, “…is an icon” or Avatars Icons. So be attentive - know about different definitions of icons!