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GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual

8. Symbols

A symbol is an object with a unique name. This chapter describes symbols, their components, their property lists, and how they are created and interned. Separate chapters describe the use of symbols as variables and as function names; see 11. Variables, and 12. Functions. For the precise read syntax for symbols, see 2.3.4 Symbol Type.

You can test whether an arbitrary Lisp object is a symbol with symbolp:

Function: symbolp object

This function returns t if object is a symbol, nil otherwise.

8.1 Symbol Components		Symbols have names, values, function definitions and property lists.
8.2 Defining Symbols		A definition says how a symbol will be used.
8.3 Creating and Interning Symbols		How symbols are kept unique.
8.4 Property Lists		Each symbol has a property list for recording miscellaneous information.