A rebus (/ˈriːbəs/) is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated

pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the
word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated
bumblebee next to a plus sign (+) and the letter "n". It was a favorite form of
heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames.

For example, in its basic form, three salmon (fish) are used to denote the
surname "Salmon". A more sophisticated example was the rebus of Bishop
Walter Lyhart (d. 1472) of Norwich, consisting of a stag (or hart) lying down
in a conventional representation of water.

The composition alludes to the name, profession or personal

characteristics of the bearer, and speaks to the beholder Non verbis, sed
rebus, which Latin expression signifies "not by words but by things"[1] (res,
rei (f), a thing, object, matter; rebus being ablative plural).[2]

Modern rebuses, word plays

A Cole puzzle representing top secret

A modern example of the rebus used as a form of word play is:

H + Ear = Hear, or Here.

By extension, it also uses the positioning of words or parts of words in
relation to each other to convey a hidden meaning, for example:

p walk ark: walk in the park.

A rebus made up solely of letters (such as "CU" for "See you") is known as
a gramogram, grammagram, or letteral word. This concept is sometimes
extended to include numbers (as in "Q8" for "Kuwait", or "8" for "ate").[3]
Rebuses are sometimes used in crossword puzzles, with multiple letters or
a symbol fitting into a single square.[4]

Pictograms
The term rebus also refers to the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic
sound. This adapts pictograms into phonograms. A precursor to the
development of the alphabet, this process represents one of the most
important developments of writing. Fully developed hieroglyphs read in
rebus fashion were in use at Abydos in Egypt as early as 3400 BCE.[5] In
Mesopotamia, the principle was first employed on proto-cuneiform tablets,
beginning in the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BC).[6][7]

The writing of correspondence in rebus form became popular in the 18th

century and continued into the 19th century. Lewis Carroll wrote the
children he befriended picture-puzzle rebus letters, nonsense letters, and
looking-glass letters, which had to be held in front of a mirror to be read.[8]
Rebus letters served either as a sort of code or simply as a pastime.

Rebus principle

Ramesses II as child: Hieroglyphs: Ra-mes-su

In linguistics, the rebus principle is the use of existing symbols, such as
pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to
represent new words. Many ancient writing systems used the rebus
principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to
represent with pictograms. An example that illustrates the Rebus principle
is the representation of the sentence "I can see you" by using the
pictographs of "eye—can—sea—ewe".

Some linguists believe that the Chinese developed their writing system
according to the rebus principle,[9] and Egyptian hieroglyphs sometimes
used a similar system. A famous rebus statue of Ramses II uses three
hieroglyphs to compose his name: Horus (as Ra), for Ra; the child, mes;
and the sedge plant (stalk held in left hand), su; the name Ra-mes-su is
then formed.[10]

Freud[11] posited that the rebus was the basis for uncovering the latent
content of the dream. He wrote, "A dream is a picture puzzle of this sort
and our predecessors in the field of dream interpretation have made the
mistake of treating the rebus as a pictorial composition: and as such it has
seemed to them nonsensical and worthless."