List of heraldic charges

Parts of human bodies

Coat of arms of the Hungarian town Komádi.

• The head
  • Maure
  • Totenkopf
• The hand, or hand and arm, is the most common part of the human body to be a charge.^[1]
  • Arm and hammer
• The ear^[5]
• Feet^[6]
• Teeth
• Tongue^[7]
• The heart, even when blazoned "a human heart", always appears like the heart in a deck of cards rather than a natural human heart.
• A "dug" or woman's breast "distilling drops of milk" famously appears in the arms of the Dodge family, and appeared for a time on the badge of cars made by the Dodge Automotive company.^[8]
• Beards^[9]
• Testicles: the Neapolitan family of Coglione bore per fess argent and gules, three pairs of testicles counterchanged.^[10] The similar coat of the Counts Colleoni of Milan is sometimes blazoned Per pale argent and gules, three hearts reversed counterchanged.^[11]

Predatory beasts

Lion as a primary charge in the coat of arms of Finland.

• Felines
  • The lion.
  • The heraldic tyger is an imaginary monster; where the natural beast appears it is blazoned as a Bengal tiger.^[1][12]
  • A leopard refers to a lion "passant guardant", rather than a natural leopard, in the languages of French and English heraldry. A leopard's face also occurs, sometimes jessant-de-lys.^[1]
  • A heraldic panther is usually depicted spitting fire
  • The (domestic) cat, distinguished from the wild cat or "cat-a-mountain"
• Canines
  • Fox
  • Hound (dog). The two most common breeds are the talbot (dog) and greyhound.^[1]
  • Wolf
• Bear
• Brock or (badger)
• Weasels such as the Ermine (stoat)
• Otter^[1]
• Thylacine

Ungulates

• Antelope, usually blazoned as a specific type unless it is the mythical heraldic antelope.
• Cattle Bulls, cows or calves.
  • Zebu^[13]
• Camel
• Deer usually a red deer, also called a hart or Stag, and the Buck denotes a Fallow deer. Females are called hinds or does.^[1]
  • Stags
  • Caribou or Reindeer. Sometimes depicted naturally, sometimes as a deer with four antlers.^[14]
• Elephant; sometimes with a castle or seat on its back.
• Equines such as the ass and the horse sometimes of a specified breed and the mythical Unicorn^[1] and Pegasus.
• Hippopotamus
• Rhinoceros
• Swine either wild boars or domestic pigs
• Sheep and Goats Including Rams, ewes, lambs, ibex and Agnus Dei

Other mammals

• Marsupials
  • Bandicoots, and Bilbies
  • Kangaroos, Wallaroos, and Wallabies
  • Koala
  • Opossums, and possums
  • Wombat
• Monotremes such as Platypuses and Echidnas
• Monkey (or jack-a-napes^[15]), rarely "sea-monkey" (a monkey with a fish-tail).^[16]
• Mole (or moldiwarp)
• Porcupine
• Hedgehog (or urcheon).
• Beaver
• Squirrel
• Rabbits, Hares, and coneys

Reptiles and amphibians

• The serpent usually depicted nowed.^[1]
• The salamander is typically shown as a generic lizard, sometimes with a head of unusual shape often described as "dog-shaped", and always surrounded by flames.
• The lizard
• The Biscione
• Dragon: by default a European one, but also a Chinese dragon.^[17]
  • Wyvern: similar to a dragon, but with only two legs.
  • Zilant: a form of dragon appearing in Russian heraldry.
• Tortoises and Turtles

Insects

Insects include:

• Bee, often flying around beehives, natural or man-made
• Butterfly
• Dragonfly
• Emmet (heraldry)
• Flea
• Fly
• Grasshopper

Combination animals

A sea-lion, illustrated in A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909).

In heraldry

• Sphinx: depicted with the head and breasts of a woman.
• Griffin, combining the head (but with ears), chest, wings and forelegs of the eagle with the hindquarters and legs of a lion (the male griffin lacks wings and his body is scattered with spikes). See List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry.
• Unicorn, having a horse's body, deer's legs, goat's beard, and often a lion's tail
• The hippogriff is like the griffin except that the lion parts of the griffin are replaced by those of a horse.
• Harpy
• Theow is a wolf-like creature but with cloven hooves.
• The "seahorse" (hippocampus) is depicted as half horse and half fish
• The sea-lion is a combination of a lion and a fish.^[1]
• Any combination of parts of other animals, e.g. winged reindeer, is possible.^[1]

Flowers

• The fleur-de-lis
• Heraldic roses are shown in a stylised form similar to the wild rose. A rose on top of another rose form a double rose.
  • though there are several unusual different types blazoned, such as the Luther rose.
  • White Rose of York; Red Rose of Lancaster; Tudor Rose, which is a double rose.
• The lotus flower
• The thistle
• Other commonly used flower-like charges (called "foils") include:
  • Trefoil (with three petals; usually slipped, with a stem)
  • Quatrefoil (with four petals)
  • Cinquefoil (with five petals)
  • Sexfoil (with six petals)
  • The septfoil (with seven petals)
  • The double quatrefoil (with eight petals)—in England the rare cadency mark of a ninth son.
• Strawberries and the strawberry flowers depicted as cinquefoils
• Grapevines

Trees and their fruits

Trees appear as eradicated (showing the roots) or couped. Fruit can appear on a tree, or by itself. Also, leaves and branches appear.

• Tree trunk
• Apple tree
• Cherry
• Pears (with peartrees)^[23]
• Coffee, including branches and beans

Other flora

• Maple leaf - symbol of Canada

Alder in the coat of arms of Grossarl, Austria.

Trees are sometimes merely blazoned as "a tree" but specific trees are mentioned in blazon.

• The oak and the acorn
• The pines and the pine-cone also called a pineapple.
• elm
• poplar, also called aspen
• willow, also called Salix or Osiers; its branch is called a wand
• alder
• coconut tree
• palm
• Laurel trees
• olive
• The pomegranate tree
• cannabis
• grass, often on a mound

A small group of trees is blazoned as a hurst, grove, wood or thicket.^[2]

Grain crops and vegetables

Barley (French orge) in the arms of Orges, Switzerland

• Wheat occurs in the form of "garbs" or sheaves and as ears, though sometimes garbs represent another crop
  • a garb of hay^[24]
• Ears of rye are depicted exactly as wheat, except the ears droop down.
• "Ginny wheat" or "guinea wheat" (like wheat but with a fatter ear) also exists^[25]
• Cabbage^[26]
• Leek^[27]

Celestial bodies and atmosphere

• A sphere^[28] in an orbit.
• A sun with rays is called a sun in splendour.
• Moons come in various phases, including crescent and "in her plenitude" (a full moon with a face).
• Mullets represent stars or spur rowels. Stars can have any number of points, but if nothing is specified in the blazon it is usually five or six.
• Estoiles are stars with wavy rays; pole stars are differentiated.
• Constellations such as the Southern Cross.
• Magen David
• Astrological symbols such as Taurus
• clouds
  • An atomic cloud^[29]
  • A cumulo nimbus cloud [sic] in the arms of the 362d Fighter Group of the United States Air Force^[30]
  • A stylized cloud formation in the arms of the 23rd Air Division of the United States Air Force
  • A tornado in the arms of the 311th Fighter Group of the United States Air Force^[31]
• The planets such as Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. Saturn is always depicted with its rings.
• The armillary sphere or globe^[2]
• Lightning bolts, also called "lightning flashes", are shown in a stylized way.
• Thunderbolts, shown in a stylized way
• volcano

• A mount or a trimount.
• A glass throughout, shattered, argent^[32]
• The wheel is a carriage wheel unless otherwise specified
  • A winged wheel
  • Catherine Wheel
  • A millwheel or water wheel
  • Cogwheel (used mainly in more recent coats-of-arms to represent heavy industry)
• Emblem of the Trinity^[33]
• Letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets, often with religious themes

The arms of Bonsmoulins with a millwheel in the base

Ships and boats

Coat of arms of St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut

• The lymphad (a type of ancient ship)
• A Roman ship
• Viking ships
• Three-masted sailing ships
• A barque
• Anchor

Structures

• Religious Structures

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Flag

• • A belfry
  • A steeple
  • churches of various types
  • Chapels^[34]
  • Convents
  • missions
  • Abbey.^[35]
• Fortified buildings
  • Castle, a castle of the generic type consists of two towers connected by an embattled wall (also a charge in heraldry).^[1] Varieties occur, such as being triangular or quadrangular. Also, the windows and doors can be of a different tincture, as well as the masonry. Sometimes they have domed towers.
  • Towers can be combined with castles or have their own towers. They vary in the same way as castles.
  • Portcullis^[1]
• Columns
• Arches
• Mills, e.g. windmills^[1]
• Dovecotes
• Tents^[19]

Headgear

• Phrygian cap
• Mitre^[2]
• Crowns or coronets, if not more precisely specified, have four leaves (three visible) and no arches. Varieties include:
  • naval crown^[2]
  • Royal Crown
  • Imperial crown
  • civic crown^[2]
  • Eastern crown or Antique crown^[2]
  • camp crown, crown vallary or crown palisado^[2]
  • mural crown^[2]
  • Crancelin, a crown of rue^[2]
  • Papal tiara
• Helmets

Music

Coat of arms of Albert, Prince Consort, showing the harp of Ireland within the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom in the first and fourth quarters and a crancelin (a crown of rue, an ornamental plant) as a part of the Coat of arms of Saxony in the second and third.

Musical instruments include:

• Harp
• Bugle-horn sometimes just called a horn.^[1]
• Bagpipes
• Bells, including church bells and hawks' bells^[1]
• Clarion^[1]
• Drum (shown as a "field drum")
• A sharp, flat, and natural^[36]

Weapons

Arms of the Republic of the United Provinces: Gules, a crowned lion Or, armed and langued azure, holding a sword and a sheaf of arrows

• Axes of various types
  • Fasces
  • Labrys
• Battering ram^[19]
• Bow, including the longbow and crossbow, and arrow^[2]
  • Yoke and arrows
• Caltrop, displayed with one spike pointing upwards
• Cannon, including the culverin^[1]
• Grenade: similar in appearance to a cannonball with flames coming out of a flattened end.^[1]
• Lance and spear sometimes broken, usually of the tilting variety.^[2]
  • Javelin
  • Pheon and spear heads.^[2]
• Mace^[2]
• Musket^[37]
• Sword, including variants such as the scimitar, seax, and dagger^[1]
• Pennon, often referred to as a pile (military construction beam) or passion nail (tool); a type of flag used to signal battle commands.^[38]

Tools

• Anvil^[1]
• Fetterlock^[1]
• Fire brand^[1]
• Fire striker^[1]
• Fleam^[1]
• Hammers, of various types^[1]
  • Arm and hammer
  • Hammer and pick
• Harrow^[19]
• Keys^[1]
• Millrind^[1]
• Nails, often passion nails^[1]
• Shovel
• Sickle
• Ladders typically take the form of scaling ladders.^[1]
• Rake
• Scales (weighing)
• Shuttle^[1]
• Surgeons' scalpels
• Trowel
• Tun^[19]
• Water-bougets A charge resembling the water bags that were used to supply the army in battle^[19]

Clothing and other personal items

• Buckles in a variety of styles even in the form of a heart.^[39]
• The maunch is a lady's stylized sleeve.^[1]
• Spurs.^[1]
• chamber pots^[40]
• Chess rooks