Jump To:

• beacon
  beacon

  noun

  a guiding or warning signal, as a light or fire, especially one in an elevated position.
• Beacon
  Beacon

  noun

  a city in SE New York.

beacon

¹ American  

[bee-kuhn] / ˈbi kən /

noun

• beacons
  plural

1. a guiding or warning signal, as a light or fire, especially one in an elevated position.

   Synonyms:

   balefire, pharos, buoy, beam

2. a tower or hill used for such purposes.

3. a lighthouse, signal buoy, etc., on a shore or at a dangerous area at sea to warn and guide vessels.

4. Navigation.

   1. radio beacon.

   2. a radar device at a fixed location that, upon receiving a radar pulse, transmits a reply pulse that enables the original sender to determine their position relative to the fixed location.

5. a person, act, or thing that warns or guides.

6. a person or thing that illuminates or inspires.

   The Bible has been our beacon during this trouble.

7. Digital Technology.

   1. web beacon.

   2. a low-energy radio transmitter at a specific location within a store, museum, office space, etc., which identifies nearby mobile devices in order to send them location-specific messages or collect location-specific data.

      There must be a beacon in the luggage aisle because I just got a coupon for this suitcase on my phone.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to serve as a beacon to; warn or guide.

2. to furnish or mark with beacons.

   a ship assigned to beacon the shoals.

verb (used without object)

1. to serve or shine as a beacon.

   A steady light beaconed from the shore.

Beacon ² American  

[bee-kuhn] / ˈbi kən /

noun

1. a city in SE New York.

---

beacon British  

/ ˈbiːkən /

noun

1. a signal fire or light on a hill, tower, etc, esp one used formerly as a warning of invasion

2. a hill on which such fires were lit

3. a lighthouse, signalling buoy, etc, used to warn or guide ships in dangerous waters

4. short for radio beacon

5. a radio or other signal marking a flight course in air navigation

6. short for Belisha beacon

7. a person or thing that serves as a guide, inspiration, or warning

8. a stone set by a surveyor to mark a corner or line of a site boundary, etc

---

verb

1. to guide or warn

2. (intr) to shine

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• beaconless
  adjective
• unbeaconed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• beacons
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of beacon

First recorded before 950; Middle English beken, Old English bēacen “sign, signal”; cognate with Old Frisian bāken, Old Saxon bōkan, Old High German bouhhan

---

Explanation

If your nose is shining like a beacon, I hope you are a reindeer employed by a jolly fat man from the North Pole. Beacon comes from an Old English word meaning “sign,” and that's what actual beacons are for lost ships: signs of having made it to land. Beacons are often some kind of light, like the bonfires that the ancient Greeks lit on hillsides to communicate that an army had come home from overseas. You'll also see beacon used figuratively, especially in the phrase “beacon of hope.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

beacon Beacon beacons

Australia's prime minister and fellow parliamentarians led sombre tributes Monday to "beacon of decency" and colleague Helen Haines, who remains in hospital after being struck by a car outside her office a week ago.

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026

To some, it’s a beacon of hope in the midst of an imperfect urban fabric that has long prioritized the fantastical.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

In the decades since Diana died, the royal family has successfully recast itself in a softer light and as a beacon of patriotic continuity in turbulent times.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

“Japan feels a sense of responsibility to safeguard the ideals of the United Nations as our beacon of hope,” Takaichi said on Tuesday.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

Here, I was a teenaged girl with average upper body strength, hair like a signal beacon, and a mental condition that could make me think I was being attacked even when I wasn’t.

From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia

A representative for Flatley said that O'Brien died peacefully at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin after an illness, Irish national broadcaster RTÉ reports.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

A half-mile away, in a stretch farther from the river that had sat mostly vacant since Beacon Manufacturing closed its blanket factory nearly 25 years ago, new businesses are opening one after another.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

“Sure, it’s a shock from where it was six months ago, but from a long-run perspective, once you control for price growth, it’s not a big deal,” said Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

Trump’s post won’t have an effect on the Fed, according to Stephen Myrow, managing partner at Beacon Policy Advisors.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026

This was the highest land in Boston, next only to Beacon Hill.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

Call them curmudgeonly roadblocks to progress, or the last beacons of sanity on the road.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

If the truck and the Walkman were metaphorical beacons, a modest gold, rope necklace and Jeff Kent’s mustache were concealed anchors even when in plain sight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

It is now starting to build military-grade infrastructure like navigation beacons.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

For many years, astronomers have relied on distant supernovae as cosmic beacons to study the universe and test the laws of physics.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2026

“I’m not supposed to be here at all. We threw away our GPS beacons weeks ago, trying to get away.”

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• flare
• lantern
• radar

---