This application provides a symbol processing method and apparatus. The method includes: obtaining, based on a plurality of complex-valued symbols, a first set corresponding to a first transmitted symbol and a second set corresponding to a second transmitted symbol; performing a copy operation on the first set and the second set, so that both the first set and the second set have first complex-valued symbols, and a start location of a first subset including the first complex-valued symbols in the first set is the same as a start location of a second subset including the first complex-valued symbols in the second set; and performing signal processing including a cyclic shift or frequency domain weighting on the first set and the second set, so that the start location and an end location of the first subset respectively correspond to locations preceding and following a first reference point of the first transmitted symbol, and the start location and an end location of the second subset respectively correspond to locations preceding and following a second reference point of the second transmitted symbol. In this application, a guard interval between symbols can be flexibly configured.