Word.ws English Dictionary

heliograph

US/ˈhiː.li.əˌɡɹæf/

heliograph noun: an apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.

heliograph: an apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight
Image: Macchess Heliograph, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

heliograph (plural heliographs)

  1. An apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.
    • Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order, / And hied away to the Hurrum Hills above the Afghan border, / To sit on a rock with a heliograph; but ere he left he taught / His wife the working of the Code that sets the miles at naught. / And Love had made him very sage, as...1886, Rudyard Kipling, “[Departmental Ditties] A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties […], New York, N.Y.: M. F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, published 1899, →OCLC
    • It was a lieutenant and a couple of privates of the 8th Hussars, with a stand like a theodolite, which the artilleryman told me was a heliograph.1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the...
  2. A heliogram.
  3. An instrument for measuring the intensity of sunlight.
  4. A device for photographing the sun.
  5. (obsolete) A photograph.

Verb

heliograph (third-person singular simple present heliographs, present participle heliographing, simple past and past participle heliographed)

  1. (transitive) To send a message by heliograph.
    • With damnatory dot and dash he heliographed his wife / Some interesting details of the General's private life.1919, Rudyard Kipling, “A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads
  2. (intransitive) To send a heliograph.
  3. (dated, transitive) To photograph by sunlight.
  4. (figuratively) To message or indicate as though by heliograph.
    • 'Oh yes, you're Mr Bryce. Cabana Number One, right down on the beach. Mr Leiter's been expecting you since lunchtime. And...?' She heliographed with her pince-nez towards Solitaire. 'Mrs Bryce,' said Bond.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Everglades”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 125

heliograph meaning in Tamil

heliograph in Tamil

சூரியப் படக்கருவி

Forms of heliograph

Noun
pluralheliographs
Verb
third-person singular presentheliographs
present participleheliographing
past participleheliographed
pastheliographed

Origin of heliograph

From helio- + -graph.

Words formed from heliograph

Questions about heliograph

What does heliograph mean?
Heliograph means an apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.
What is heliograph in Tamil?
Heliograph in Tamil is சூரியப் படக்கருவி. See Heliograph meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is heliograph?
Heliograph can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce heliograph?
Heliograph is pronounced /ˈhiː.li.əˌɡɹæf/ (US).
What is the plural of heliograph?
The plural of heliograph is heliographs.

Words near heliograph in the dictionary

  1. Heliogabalus
  2. heliogeomagnetics
  3. heliogeophysical
  4. heliogram
  5. heliograms
  6. heliograph
  7. heliographed
  8. heliographer
  9. heliographers
  10. heliographic
  11. heliographical

Source and license

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

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