You declare a symbol in the defs section of an SVG image and you can instantiate it with use. E.g.
<svg> <defs> <symbol id='foo'> <circle r='5' cx='10' cy='3'/> </symbol> </defs> <use xlink:href='#foo' x='2' y='5'/> <use xlink:href='#foo' x='10' y='10' fill='red' stroke='blue'/> </svg>