In linguistics, the semiotic class is a category of signs that share similar characteristics or functions. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and how they communicate meaning. The semiotic class is a way to group signs together based on some shared properties. The preferred realization of a [[non-standard word]] can depend on the semiotic class that it belongs to. For this reason, the [[text normalization]] uses a set of [[semiotic classes for non-standard words]].