| / English Dictionary |
BEACON
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A tower with a light that gives warning of shoals to passing ships
Synonyms:
beacon; beacon light; lighthouse; pharos
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("beacon" is a kind of...):
tower (a structure taller than its diameter; can stand alone or be attached to a larger building)
Instance hyponyms:
Tower of Pharos (a great lighthouse (500 feet high) built at Alexandria in 285 BC)
Derivation:
beacon (guide with a beacon)
beacon (shine like a beacon)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A radio station that broadcasts a directional signal for navigational purposes
Synonyms:
beacon; radio beacon
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("beacon" is a kind of...):
radio station (station for the production and transmission of AM or FM radio broadcasts)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A fire (usually on a hill or tower) that can be seen from a distance
Synonyms:
beacon; beacon fire
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("beacon" is a kind of...):
visual signal (a signal that involves visual communication)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beacon"):
signal fire; signal light (a fire set as a signal)
Derivation:
beacon (shine like a beacon)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Guide with a beacon
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "beacon" is one way to...):
conduct; direct; guide; lead; take (take somebody somewhere)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
beacon (a tower with a light that gives warning of shoals to passing ships)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Shine like a beacon
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "beacon" is one way to...):
beam; shine (emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Derivation:
beacon (a tower with a light that gives warning of shoals to passing ships)
beacon (a fire (usually on a hill or tower) that can be seen from a distance)
Context examples:
This is the first study of how birds orient their bodies, necks and heads to fly through extreme 45-degree crosswinds over short ranges — both in bright visual environments and in dark, cave-like environments, where faint points of light are the only beacons.
(Scientists discover how birds navigate crosswinds, National Science Foundation)
Beacons of the future!
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
One could not walk the Kent coast without seeing the beacons heaped up to tell the country of the enemy’s landing, and if the sun were shining on the uplands near Boulogne, one might catch the flash of its gleam upon the bayonets of manoeuvring veterans.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The supermassive black hole in the center of the quasar gobbles up an enormous amount of nearby materials, which glare and shine when they constitute an accretion disk before finally sliding down in the black hole, said Hongyan Zhou, faculty member at the University of Science and Technology of China about the universe’s brightest beacons; shining with magnitudes more luminosity than entire galaxies and the stars they contain.
(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
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