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signalman

American  
[sig-nl-muhn] / ˈsɪg nl mən /

noun

  • signalmen
    plural
  1. a person whose occupation or duty is signaling, as on a railroad or in the army.


signalman British  
/ ˈsɪɡnəlmən /

noun

  1. a railway employee in charge of the signals and points within a section

  2. a man who sends and receives signals, esp in the navy

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns


Etymology

Origin of signalman

First recorded in 1730–40; signal + -man


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

“I was choked up,” said Matthew Di Gioia, 25, who works as an Amtrak signalman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Tarr followed with “The Man From London,” which he and Krasznahorkai adapted from a novel by Georges Simenon, about a seaside railway signalman who confronts a moral quandary involving a murder mystery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026

Jacobs was 17 when he joined the Navy in November 1944, after D-Day, and became a Navy signalman.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

Her father was a railway signalman, union official and former merchant seaman who claimed that her pram was crammed full of Labour literature during the campaign that led to Labour's 1945 landslide election victory.

From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2023

Talking of nails," continued Stirling, "I've just had a rum case--Thompson, the leading signalman.

From With Beatty off Jutland A Romance of the Great Sea Fight by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

The workers include locomotive engineers, machinists, electricians and signalmen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026

The Association of American Railroads trade group said in a statement that the new dispatcher and signalmen rules aren’t likely to make a significant improvement in safety because the railroads already train their employees.

From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2024

And signalmen who maintain signals and warnings at rail crossings have bigger territories to cover, making it harder to keep up with preventative maintenance.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 1, 2023

While the signalmen responsible for the crash at Quintinshill were both jailed, they served just over a year in prison and were reemployed in the railways after their release.

From BBC ● May 23, 2015

No submarines attacked us and we were kept busy on board practicing our code and all the other skills we needed as signalmen.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac

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