Main Entry: se·mi·ot·ic
Pronunciation: -'ä-tik
Variant(s): or se·mi·ot·ics /-tiks/
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural semiotics
Etymology: Greek sEmeiOtikos observant of signs, from sEmeiousthai to interpret signs, from sEmeion sign, from sEma sign
Date: 1880
: a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics

Semiotics is a study of the language of symbols, including icons, symbols, language, gesture, metaphor, simile, translation, encoding, encryption, sentence structure, grammar, expression, signalling, composition, and iconographic mediation to communication. Thus it includes all ways that humans get an idea or alert between two or more individuals. In most contexts, it is inherently deconstructionist, or based on the idea that analyzing things into their smallest component parts yields truth. Some say in fact it simply obscures meaning once wrapped in the larger objects.