Word definition: point

Etimology


From Middle English poynt, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin pūnctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of pūnctus m, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, punch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”)); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin pūncta f (past participle). Displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, punctum, punt, and punto.

noun


point (plural points)

A small dot or mark.

A small discrete division or individual feature of something.

A sharp extremity.

The act of pointing.

(nautical) A short piece of cordage used in reefing sails.

(historical) A string or lace used to tie together certain garments.

Lace worked by the needle.

In various sports, a position of a certain player, or, by extension, the player occupying that position.

Examples


The stars showed as tiny points of yellow light.

Commas and points they set exactly right.

10.5 is "ten point five", or ten and a half.

Sound the trumpet — not a levant, or a flourish, but a point of war.

The Congress debated the finer points of the bill.

There comes a point in a marathon when some people give up.

At this point in the meeting, I'd like to propose a new item for the agenda.

She was not feeling in good point.

I made the point that we all had an interest to protect.

The point is that we should stay together, whatever happens.

Since the decision has already been made, I see little point in further discussion.

But I love you / More than I wanted to / There's no point in trying to pretend

We're all gonna dieWhat's the point in lifeWhat's the point in life if we all die?

full large of limbe and euery ioint / He was, and cared not for God or man a point.

When time's first point begun / Made he all souls.

We should meet at a pre-arranged point.

Logic isn't my strong point.

the points of a horse

Knowledge was always useful, and he had frequently heard the words 'Great Portland Street' on the lips of his son, who regularly perused all the twelve automobilistic papers, and who was apparently the most learned pundit and inclusive encyclopædia ever created on the subject of petrol-driven vehicles, their prices, and their innumerable points.

The point color of that cat was a deep, rich sable.

Possession is nine points of the law.

We have yet to touch on the idea of stars and directors receiving gross points, which is a percentage of the studio's gross dollar . Even if the points are paid on "first dollar," the reference is only to studio share.

The one with the most points will win the game.

Ship ahoy, three points off the starboard bow!

Cut the skin with the point of the knife.

Leaue words & let them feele your lances pointes

His cowboy belt was studded with points.

Solutrean points resemble the canines of the sabre-toothed cats.

Willie Jones decided to become Kimani Jones, Black Panther, on the day his best friend, Otis Nicholson, stepped on a mine while walking point during a sweep in the central highlands.

"When do we pull the trigger?" he asked. I was quick to respond, "If Tammy get's Mrs. Wellington to agree, she'll call you in a couple hours. Then just pull out all stops. Tammy has point on this, I don't want to hear from you unless it's an all clear."

The president’s senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has been point on immigration policy.

He captained Regis High School’s 1958 squad, but now runs point on infectious diseases.

Instead of one point-person taking all the parents’ questions, WPSD has “put together coaches and ambassadors to handle calls so one person doesn’t have to handle 2,500 calls,” Woolf said.

to fall off a point

There was moreover a hint of the duchess in the infinite point with which, as she felt, she exclaimed: "And this is what you call coming often?"

I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

The point, according to Edmondson, is an ordinary somewhat resembling the pile, issuing from the base, as in Plate VII. fig. 24, and is sometimes termed a base point pointed, but the word base is superfluous, as that is the proper place of the point; […]

[…] DCDP children are exposed to more points and gesturelike signs in their linguistic environment […]

The dog came to a point.

tierce point

pick your purse while they tie your points, and cut your throat while they smooth your pillow

He wore a garb rather fanciful, of a silver-grey colour, trimmed with crimson, and a narrow edging of silver; the lace round his throat was of the finest point;...

point de Venise; Brussels point

Related words


synonyms

(location or place): location, place, position, spot

(in geometry): ord

(particular moment in an event or occurrence): moment, ord, time

(sharp tip): end, ord, tip

(arithmetic symbol): spot, decimal point (name of the symbol; not used when reading decimal fractions aloud)

(opinion): opinion, point of view, view, viewpoint

(unit of measure of success or failure): mark (in a competition)

(color of extremities of an animal):

hyponyms

access point

accidental point

accumulation point

action point

amphidromic point

Archimedean point

assemblage point

axial point

ballpoint

Banks-Zaks fixed point

basepoint

basis point

bite point

biting point

bliss point

blue point

boiling point

boundary point

branch point

breakdown point

break-even point

breaking point

break point

Brocard point

brownie point

bullet point

cardinal point

case in point

cash point

cashpoint

charging point

chocolate point

clip point

cloud point

Clovis point

code point

coincidence point

commit point

compass point

compound point

condensation point

consolute point

construction point

control point

cover point

critical point

Curie point

data point

datum point

decimal point

deep point

demerit point

dew point

Didot point

Disney point

dot point

double point

downflooding point

Draper point

dropping point

dry point

drypoint

Eckardt point

end point

endpoint

entry point

entry point for the eye

eutectic point

exclamation point

Exeter point

experience point

extra point

extreme point

fare break point

fess point

Feynman point

fire point

firing point

first point of Aries

first point of Cancer

first point of Capricorn

first point of Libra

fixed point

flash point

floating point

flotating point

focal point

Fournier point

fourth point of contact

freezing point

frontal point

full point

game point

glazier's point

gold point

grade point

Grebe point

grid point

ground control point

grown-up point

gunpoint

health point

Heegner point

higher intermediate point

high point, highpoint

hit point

hollow point

honor point

honour point

hypercritical point

ice point

ideal point

inflection point

infopoint

initial point

interior point

interjection point

interrogation point

isoelectric point

isolated point

isosbestic point

join point

jumping-off point

junction point

kindling point

knickpoint

knifepoint

K-point

lacrimal point

Lagrange point

Lagrangian point

lambda point

lattice point

Lemoine point

libration point

ligature point

lilac point

limit point

magic point

mana point

match point

McBurney's point

melting point

midpoint, mid-point

minor point

moot point

mount point

navel point

near point

needlepoint

nick point

nip point

nombril point

occipital point

omega point

Omega point

operating point

ordinary point

outpoint

pain point

passion point

pedal point

penalty point

percentage point

Pica point

pinch point

pivot point

pogi point

point of care

point of difference

power point

pressure point

projectile point

radix point

Radon point

raised point

reference point

rogue access point

saddle point

sample pointt

saturation point

save point

scatter point

Schelling point

seal point

sequence point

set point

SharePoint

silly point

singular point

skill point

smoke point

sore point

spawn point

speaker point

specie point

stagnation point

standpoint

starting point

stationary point

sticking point

stress point

subsolar point

take point

talking point

till point

tipping point

transition point

trig point

triple point

trisection point

trois point

Trojan point

Truchet point

turning point

vanishing point

vantage point

vernal point

victory point

vowel point

waypoint

yield point

zero point

related terms

point d'appui

Etimology


From Middle English pointen, poynten, from Old French pointier, pointer, poynter, from point from Latin pūnctum.

verb


point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

(intransitive) To extend the index finger in the direction of something in order to show where it is or to draw attention to it.

(intransitive) To draw attention to something or indicate a direction.

(intransitive) To face in a particular direction.

(transitive, sometimes figurative) To direct toward an object; to aim.

To give a point to; to sharpen; to cut, forge, grind, or file to an acute end.

(intransitive) To indicate a probability of something.

(transitive, intransitive, masonry) To repair mortar.

(transitive, masonry) To fill up and finish the joints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface.

(stone-cutting) To cut, as a surface, with a pointed tool.

(transitive) To direct or encourage (someone) in a particular direction.

(transitive, mathematics) To separate an integer from a decimal with a decimal point.

(transitive) To mark with diacritics.

(dated) To supply with punctuation marks; to punctuate.

(transitive, computing) To direct the central processing unit to seek information at a certain location in memory.

(transitive, Internet) To direct requests sent to a domain name to the IP address corresponding to that domain name.

(intransitive, nautical) To sail close to the wind.

(intransitive, hunting) To indicate the presence of game by a fixed and steady look, as certain hunting dogs do.

(medicine, of an abscess) To approximate to the surface; to head.

(dated) To give point to (something said or done); to give particular prominence or force to.

Examples


It's rude to point at other people.

Now must the world point at poor Katharine.

Point at the tattered coat and ragged shoe.

Luiz struggled with the movement of Helguson in the box, as he collected a long ball and the Spaniard barged him over, leaving referee Chris Foy little option but to point to the spot.

The arrow of a compass points north

The skis were pointing uphill.

The arrow on the map points towards the entrance

In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

to point a gun at a wolf, or a cannon at a fort

Mr. Fitzsimons pointed my attention to an outside car on which was written, "Take warning," or something of that kind, and he pointed that out to me, and drew my attention to it, as a thing likely to intimidate […]

to point a dart, a pencil, or a moral

Tens of thousands of Portuguese, Greek and Irish people have left their homelands this year, many heading for the southern hemisphere. Anecdotal evidence points to the same happening in Spain and Italy.

Damaged stone will be removed, and the new stone installed and pointed to ensure a comprehensive match to maintain the integrity of the structure.

If he asks for food, point him toward the refrigerator.

Whosoever should be guided through his battles by Minerva, and pointed to every scene of them.

to point a composition

Bear off a little, we're pointing.

He treads with caution, and he points with fear.

He points it, however, by no deviation from his straightforward manner of speech.

‘Oh, it is the great defect in our Indian character!’ – and, as if to point his criticism, the lights of the Civil Station appeared on a rise to the right.

Etimology


From Middle English pointen, poynten, by apheresis of apointen, appointen, appoynten. See appoint.

verb


point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

(obsolete) To appoint.

Examples


And he, that points the Centinel his room,Doth license him depart at sound of morning Droom.

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