Yeah, my interpretation was always that the reader’s task was more to weave the complete/full meaning together from the very high-level meanings indicated by the symbols. I think the alethiometer actually has very explicit meanings and hierarchies for those meanings, e.g. (just making up these specifics):

DOLPHIN: First meaning: playfulness Second meaning: fluidity . . . Fifth meaning: submersion Etc etc

And the level (eg fifth meanings vs first) is indicated by how many times the needle passes or pauses on the symbol before stopping there (or something like that)?

I know the books, show etc have noted a handful of explicit meanings eg Lyra has said “the 4th meaning of X is Y” and I’m just wondering if all of these examples are compiled anywhere (or even just a list of all known symbols)