checkpoint

American  

[chek-point] / ˈtʃɛkˌpɔɪnt /

noun

• checkpoints
  plural

1. a place along a road, border, etc., where travelers are stopped for inspection.

2. a point or item, especially in a procedure, for notation, inspection, or confirmation.

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checkpoint British  

/ ˈtʃɛkˌpɔɪnt /

noun

1. a place, as at a frontier or in a motor rally, where vehicles or travellers are stopped for official identification, inspection, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• checkpoints
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of checkpoint

First recorded in 1935–40; check ¹ + point

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

checkpoint checkpoints

This enzyme acts as an important checkpoint, helping determine how much fat can enter mitochondria for use as fuel.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

The Israeli military said soldiers had rushed to the Judea Junction area, also known as the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, after the early-morning shooting attack.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

Arthur Britton was in Germany manning a checkpoint on the Oste River two weeks after the Nazi surrender when three Germans tried to cross the bridge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

If every risk leads us to add another checkpoint, fence or barrier, we may gain a sense of control but lose the ability to create the kind of public togetherness that forms a bonded city.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

She is seventeen and the only woman among eleven Central Americans trying to sneak around a Mexican immigration checkpoint at Huehuetan in Chiapas.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

In the final phase, the elite international team that escorted her had to dodge Venezuelan security forces and duck police inspections at checkpoints as it smuggled her north.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

These stable arrangements serve as molecular checkpoints, narrowing the enormous number of possible assembly routes into a much smaller set of successful pathways.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026

“Everywhere checkpoints work, intismeran should be able to work,” David Berman, Moderna’s chief development officer, said last month at an investor conference, according to an AlphaSense transcript.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

The gates blocking it, and the security checkpoints along its flanks, will dramatically limit the public’s desire to enter, and change the tenor and experience of a space that should feel porous and inclusive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

They had even set up checkpoints at the local bus and railway stations.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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