A hieroglyph was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographicscripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonism, especially during the Renaissance, a "hieroglyph" was an artistic representation of an esoteric idea, which Neoplatonists believed actual Egyptian hieroglyphs to be. The word hieroglyphics refer to a hieroglyphic script. Only those privileged with an extensive education were able to read and write hieroglyphs; others used simpler 'joined-up' versions: demotic and hieratic script.

One of the two forms of the Meroitic writing system is usually described as "Meroitic hieroglyphs" because the characters are similar to and in most cases derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. They are used, however, not as logographs but as an alphasyllabary. An hieroglyphs are an tipe of writting in which the words are not represented but the meaning its exposed with simbols or figures.

The egyptians and other villages ancient they used hierogliphs in their monuments .The term hieroglyph is used both to name the system and the figures or characters of this type of writing. As a system, it began to be used around the year 3,300 a.C. and it was in force until the third century.