A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short), in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people) and used by them in a wide variety of ways. They were once used by knights to identify them apart from enemy soldiers. Unlike seals and emblems, coats of arms have a formal description that is expressed as a blazon. In the 21st century, coats of arms still continue to be in use, in a variety of institutions, e.g. several universities have guidelines on how their coats of arms may be used and protect their use. The art of designing, displaying, describing, and recording arms is called heraldry.