REBUS

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REBUS. A device that uses letters, numbers, or pictures to represent WORDS: for example, MT used to mean empty; B4 to mean before. The rebus is usually a puzzle that demands some lateral thinking to decipher it, as in MIN (half a minute) and CCCCCCC (the Seven Seas). The idea is as old as Egyptian hieroglyphics and came into English in the Middle Ages in heraldic devices and pictorial representations of names.

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