Word.ws English Dictionary

earmarks

earmarks is the plural of earmark.

earmarks is the third-person singular simple present indicative of earmark.

Meaning of earmark

Noun

earmark (plural earmarks)

  1. A mark made or tag attached to the ear of an animal (chiefly a livestock animal), generally to identify or indicate something about the animal, such as ownership, health or gestation status, etc.
    • Some mark them [sheep] vvith Raddle and make Ear-marks.1725, [Noël] Chomel, “MARKING OF SHEEP”, in R[ichard] Bradley, editor, Dictionaire Oeconomique: Or, The Family Dictionary. […], volume II (I–Z), London: […] D[aniel] Midwinter, […], →OCLC, signature...
    Synonyms:
    lugmark
  2. (figuratively) A distinguishing or identifying mark or sign; specifically (archaic), a mark of ownership.
    • [H]e ſhoulde be dyſcryued by hys rounding and his eare marke: […]1551, Thomas More, “The Fyrste Boke of the Communycacion of Raphaell Hythlodaye Concernynge the Best State of a Commen Wealthe”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and...
  3. (figuratively) An act of designating certain funds to be used for a specific purpose.
  4. (US, figuratively) Specifically, a designation by the Congress that certain federal funds be appropriated for a specific project.

See all 10 meanings of earmark

Questions about earmarks

What is earmarks the plural of?
Earmarks is the plural of earmark.

Words near earmarks in the dictionary

  1. earmarked
  2. earmarker
  3. earmarkers
  4. earmarking
  5. earmarkings
  6. earmarks
  7. earmold
  8. earmolds
  9. earmould
  10. earmoulds
  11. earmuff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earmarks (page history and authors); earmark (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.

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