The article deals with the question of methods for describing lexical semantics. Special attention is paid to symbols — linguistic signs expressing the worldview of culture. The relevance of the study is due to the need to develop an objective description methodology that meets both modern concepts of the semantics of a word and the nature of a symbol. A review of modern concepts of the word meaning is carried out. The question is raised about the possibility of describing the semantics of a symbol based on the analysis of the contextual environment of a linguistic sign. Attention is paid to cases of direct, figurative, symbolic and regular arbitrary use of the word. The author’s development of a methodology for qualitative and quantitative content analysis of a representative sample of texts in describing the semantics of a symbol is presented. The classification of the levels of analysis of the composition of words that form the context of the use of the symbol is proposed. The author dwells on the stages and procedures for extracting the semantics of a symbol from the context in which it is used. The results of a comparative analysis of the semantics of the WAY and ROAD symbols in the language of Russian rock poetry are presented. It is proved that the presented methodology allows describing the semantics of a symbol, relying not on the abstract logic of the relationship of concepts, but on the semantic relations fixed in the text. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that this technique allows us to consider a symbol not as an occasional, but as a linguistic unit, regularly reproduced by the carriers of the corresponding representations.