Amber Alert

or AMBER Alert

noun

a public alert system that spreads information about missing persons by using the broadcast media and electronic billboards on highways.
a public message or announcement that uses this system.

Origin of Amber Alert

Acronym from America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response; named after Amber Hagerman, a girl kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996

Words Nearby Amber Alert

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Amber Alert in a sentence

The Amber Alert system will then decide whether to issue an alert.
West Virginia Heathers: Was Skylar Neese Murdered by Her Best Friends? | Caroline Linton | December 19, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
When the two couples returned home, they saw the Amber Alert issued for Anderson and called police.
Hannah Anderson Found! Five Things to Know About the Kidnapped Teen | | August 11, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
And so we set up surveillance cameras, we have the Amber Alert, we put more police officers on the street.
Why Child Killers Love Small Towns | Marcia Clark | May 26, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST

British Dictionary definitions for Amber alert

Amber alert

noun

US and Canadian a notification to the general public, such as by commercial radio or electronic traffic-condition signs, regarding an abduction of a child

Origin of Amber alert

C20: named after Amber Hagerman, a child who was abducted and murdered in 1996 in Arlington, Texas

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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