title: How method name is converted into a symbol in Ruby?
body: <p>I am trying to understand Ruby and it's not clear for me, how Ruby converts name of method into a <code>Symbol</code>?</p>
  
  <p>In method definition we give it a name <code>meth</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>module Mod
    def meth
      puts 'm'
    end
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But if we want to check if a method exists, we pass the symbol <code>:meth</code> as a parameter to <code>method_defined</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>Mod.method_defined?(:meth)
  =&gt; true 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Please, help me understand, how does this work?</p>