any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages; "each rune had its own magical significance"
a single written symbol that represents an entire word or phrase without indicating its pronunciation; "7 is a logogram that is pronounced `seven' in English and `nanatsu' in Japanese"
(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors"