beacon

«beacon» in Mova's school dictionary: a light or fire on a hill, tower or coast that warns… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a beacon, beacons)

meaning for a pupil

1) A beacon is a light or fire on a hill, tower or coast that warns people or guides them, like a lighthouse light. tree →

2) A beacon is a device that sends out a radio signal to show where something or someone is, for example on a boat or for hikers. tree →

3) A beacon of something (hope, light) is a person or thing that gives others hope or shows the way. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons beacon fires on hilltops passed warnings across the country, for example when the Spanish Armada came to England. In safety lessons, emergency beacons (PLBs) help rescuers find lost walkers and sailors. In the UK, «Belisha beacons» are the flashing orange lights at zebra crossings. Phrases: «a beacon of hope», «emergency beacon», «light a beacon».

examples

• The lighthouse beacon flashed all night. tree →
• People lit beacons on the hills to warn of danger. tree →
• The hikers carried an emergency beacon. tree →
• The rescue team followed the signal from the beacon. tree →
• A Belisha beacon flashes at a zebra crossing. tree →
• Her kindness was a beacon of hope in hard times. tree →
• The ship's beacon showed where it had sunk. tree →
• Plane pilots use radio beacons to find their way. tree →
• I got a light, and in a few moments the red flames leaped up as a beacon to them. tree →

note

Countable: a beacon. Say «BEE-kun». A lighthouse is a building; its light is a beacon. Do not confuse with «bacon».

In the corpora

• In the UK zebra crossings have flashing orange globes on black and white poles, called Belisha beacons.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «beacon» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.