tau cross

9.3

A Christian symbol shaped like the letter T often seen in art

noun
/taʊ krɔs/

: cruz tau

The monk wore a pendant shaped like a tau cross around his neck.

Examples

The chapel's altar was decorated with a large wooden tau cross.
In medieval art, the tau cross often symbolized St. Anthony.
The tau cross is beautiful.
Look at that tau cross!
In medieval art, the tau cross often symbolized St. Anthony.
The chapel's altar was decorated with a large wooden tau cross.
The monk wore a pendant shaped like a tau cross around his neck.

Synonyms

St. Anthony's cross

vstau cross

8.9

A cross shaped like the letter T used as a symbol of Saint Anthony

is the general T shaped religious and artistic symbol not linked to a saint

Surface Forms

tau cross singular

tau crosses plural

Morphology

tau + cross

The noun is a straightforward composition of 'tau' (the Greek letter, which has a T-like shape) and 'cross' (a cross-shaped symbol), so its meaning as a T-shaped cross is directly recoverable from the constituents. This follows ordinary noun-noun naming for shapes/types and would be understandable to a learner who knows both words.

Etymology

Tau cross is named after the Greek letter tau because the shape looks like a plain T. One popular story says early Christians and monks used this 'T-shaped' cross as a simple sign of faith, so the tau cross today stands for Christian belief and often appears in art.