isotype

[ ahy-suh-tahyp ]

noun

1. a drawing, diagram, or other symbol that represents a specific quantity of or other fact about the thing depicted:

   Every isotype of a house on that chart represents a thousand new houses.

2. a statistical graph, chart, diagram, etc., that employs such symbols.
3. Biology. any of two or more separate populations of the same or a similar type.
4. Immunology. any antigenic determinant that is common to all individuals in a species.

Word History and Origins

Origin of isotype¹

First recorded in 1880–85; iso- + type

Example Sentences

Her research included DNA, as well as isotype analysis, but it also included many interviews with tribal elders about their observations on community dietary changes over time.

From Washington Post

In a 1944 typescript explaining the value of Isotype books exhibited in the show, he wrote: “There are many fine books, giving information to adults and children, but usually they are ‘learned’.

From The Guardian

These Isotype books try to avoid that … It is not so much the question of how to transfer in the most direct and simple way some knowledge, but how to satisfy the possible questions of a child, his love of action, his identifying himself with a person on the page.”

From The Guardian

Their Isotype Institute, founded in Vienna, had the slogan: “Words divide, pictures unite.”

From The Guardian

As the project grew, Otto hired artists including Erwin Bernath and Gerd Arntz, for what would become known as the Isotype Institute.

From The Guardian