Noun: beacon
| Singular | beacon |
| Plural | beacons |
Sample Sentences
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No flaming Beacons caſt their Blaze afar, / The dreadful Signal of invaſive VVar. [1713, [John] Gay, Rural Sports. A Poem. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 15:]
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Henceforth, wherever thou may’st roam, / My blessing, like a line of light, / Is on the waters day and night, / And like a beacon guards thee home. [1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 28:]
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a beacon of hope
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Modest doubt is called / The beacon of the wise. [c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:]
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Latin America’s largest economy, with a population of more than 200 million people, is a beacon for China’s delivery and ride-hailing companies looking to export their ruthlessly low-cost business models. [2025 June 20, Meaghan Tobin, “Chinese Companies Set Their Sights on Brazil”, in The New York Times:]
Nouns inflected like beacon
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English beken, from Old English bēacn (“sign, signal”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂u-, *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”).
2. Doublet of buoy. Compare West Frisian beaken (“buoy”), Dutch baken (“beacon”), Middle Low German bāke (“beacon, sign”), German Bake (“traffic sign”), Middle High German bouchen (“sign”). See: Middle English Nouns '
beken', Dutch Nouns '
baken', German Nouns '
Bake'.
Verbs referencing "beacon"
Polish Nouns
bakan, Polish Nouns
baken, Danish Nouns
bøje, German Nouns
Bake, Icelandic Nouns
bákn, Swedish Nouns
båk, Danish Nouns
bavn.