distress signal

distress signal noun: an emergency signal sent by radio (or other means) from a ship or aircraft in distress or danger.

Noun

distress signal (plural distress signals)

An emergency signal sent by radio (or other means) from a ship or aircraft in distress or danger.

Synonyms:

distress call
(figuratively) An indication of distress.
- This was a performance from Maguire that was sending out distress signals from pretty much the first whistle. The control was poor, the discipline was worse, even the simplest of tasks - a pass, a clearance - looked an almighty struggle.2020 October 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-1 Denmark: 'Harry Maguire looked devoid of confidence in Nations League loss'”, in BBC Sport
Synonyms:

distress call

இடுக்கண் அறிவிப்புக் குறிப்பு, அபாயச்சைகை, துயர் தெரிவிப்புச் சைகை

plural	distress signals

What does distress signal mean?: Distress signal means an emergency signal sent by radio (or other means) from a ship or aircraft in distress or danger.
What is distress signal in Tamil?: Distress signal in Tamil is இடுக்கண் அறிவிப்புக் குறிப்பு, அபாயச்சைகை, துயர் தெரிவிப்புச் சைகை. See Distress signal meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is distress signal?: Distress signal is a noun.
What is the plural of distress signal?: The plural of distress signal is distress signals.

Adapted from Wiktionary: distress signal (page history and authors); distress signal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-distress signal.wav.

Cite this entry: “distress signal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/distress_signal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.