The phrase "a sort of symbol" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing something that represents or signifies another thing in a vague or non-specific way.
Example: "The dove is often seen as a sort of symbol of peace in various cultures."
Alternatives: "a kind of emblem" or "a type of representation".
"This is a sort of symbol of a politician who uses prayer to cover his hideous acts.
He also became a sort of symbol of the New York Puerto Rican identity, marching prominently in Puerto Rican parades.
The meeting opened Friday morning at Castel Gandolfo, a papal palace that stands as a sort of symbol for the church's coexistence with science.
That watery image, if I were to lean into this metaphor, could be used as a sort of symbol of the blurred picture of interstate western electricity supply that my fellow Stanford intern and I are attempting to clarify at the Western Interstate Energy Board.
The black bands are a sort of symbol of defiance as well.
Viewing Ed as a sort of symbol of the burdens we carry and are so afraid to let go of.
One was towards idealism: dance as a sort of open symbol, a metaphor for emotion, an emanation of its music.
A set of garage doors opened at 10 a.m., the garage being a sort of iconic symbol of Silicon Valley start-up chutzpah.
It soon became a sort of virility symbol for officials in local and provincial governments across China to operate their own airlines.
"Einstein is a sort of universal symbol," said the director, Matthew Heckerling, 28, a graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, who spent two years making the film.
In a recent pamphlet about the fallout from the van Gogh murder, Mak complained that "an aura of martyrdom" had arisen around Hirsi Ali, and he suggested that her security detail had become "a sort of status symbol". He claimed to see similarities between the techniques of "Submission Part 1" and those of "The Eternal Jew," a 1940 film made by Joseph Goebbels's propaganda ministry.
