pointer
Syllables: point·erUK/ˈpɔɪn.tə//ˈpɔɪn.təɹ/
pointer noun: one who points.
Noun
pointer (plural pointers)
- One who points.
- The talkers and pointers had undermined him. They had touched him with the acid of their suspicions, and the corrosion spread until he himself had lost sight of the truth.1972, Lynn Hall, Sticks and Stones
- The man he addressed drew back in horror, but answered the musketeer’s words by pointing his finger. Athos offered the man a half pistole to accompany him, but the man refused. Athos went down the street that the pointer had indicated to him with his finger; […]2006, Alexandre Dumas, translated by Richard Pevear, The Three Musketeers, Viking, →ISBN, pages 645–646
- A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow.
- Synonyms:
- fescue
- A needlelike component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.
- Any of several breeds of hunting dog, trained to point out game; an individual of such a breed.
- Most of the early wirehaired pointers represented a combination of Griffon, Stichelhaar, Pudelpointer, and German Shorthair. The Pudelpointer was a cross between a Poodle dog and an English Pointer bitch; the Griffon and the Stichelhaar were composed of Pointer, Foxhound, Pudelpointer, and a Polish...2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 30
- A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
- I do consider assignment statements and pointer variables to be among computer science's "most valuable treasures."1974, Donald Knuth, “Structured Programming with go to Statements”, in Computing Surveys, volume 6, number 5, →DOI, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2009, pages 261–301
- Synonyms:
- reference
- An icon that indicates the position of the pointing device, such as a mouse.
- The system notifies the user of the progress of a task by changing the appearance of the pointer. System-busy pointers usually adopt a timepiece metaphor.1995, Aaron Marcus, Nick Smilonich, Lynne Thompson, The Cross-GUI Handbook, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 231
- Synonyms:
- cursor
- A tip, a bit of advice.
- The instructor gave me some pointers on writing a good paper.
- In a paper to the Institute of Locomotive Engineers on February 17 which ranged over the whole subject of auxiliary services on London Transport rolling stock, Mr. R. I. D. Arthurton, Mechanical Engineer (Development—Railways) London Transport Board, gave some pointers to the future on the Victoria...1964 April, “News and Comment: Auxiliaries in LT stock”, in Modern Railways, page 234
- Something that gives a point (sharp end) to something.
- pencil pointer
- Something worth a given number of points.
- a ten-pointer
- After another penalty miss, Kvirikashvili finally found the target on 27 minutes before Flood hit back with a three-pointer of his own.2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport
Proper noun capitalized: Pointer
Pointer (plural Pointers)
- A surname.
pointer meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
pointer in Tamil
- குறிமுள், சுட்டுமுள், காட்டி, சுட்டி, சுட்டிக்காட்டி
pointer in Urdu
- pointer
- اشارہ گر išārah gar
pointer in Bengali
- ইশারা, ইঙ্গিত
pointer in Telugu
- pointer, tip, suggestion
- సలహా salahā
More languagesFewer languages
- pointer in Malayalam
- ചൂണ്ടുകോൽ, ദിശാസൂചനകം, ഘടികാരസൂചി, സൂചനകം
- pointer in Kannada
- ಸಲಹೆ salahe
- pointer in Gujarati
- પોઇન્ટર
- pointer in Nepali
- पोइन्टर
- pointer in Arabic
- مُؤَشِّر muʔaššir
- pointer in Malay
- penuding, jarum penunjuk, anjing penuding
- pointer in Persian
- اشارال
- pointer in Thai
- ไม้ชี้, พ้อยท์เตอร์ poiter
- pointer in Vietnamese
- que chỉ
Examples of pointer in a sentence
- I sidled closer and heard the pointer accuse the other man of cheating.2020, J.M. Griffin, Who’s Dead, Doc?, Kensington Books, →ISBN:
- Most of the early wirehaired pointers represented a combination of Griffon, Stichelhaar, Pudelpointer, and German Shorthair.2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 30:
- Arthurton, Mechanical Engineer (Development—Railways) London Transport Board, gave some pointers to the future on the Victoria Line and elsewhere.1964 April, “News and Comment: Auxiliaries in LT stock”, in Modern Railways, page 234:
Synonyms of pointer
Forms of pointer
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pointers |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Pointers |
Origin of pointer
From point + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (measurement suffix) (sense 4).
Words formed from pointer
- back pointer
- downpointer
- Faraday pointer
- finger-pointer
- five-pointer
- Hungarian Pointer
- laser pointer
- mouse pointer
- nonpointer
- parent pointer tree
- pointer finger
- pointerless
- pointerlike
- point-to-pointer
- shared pointer
- six-pointer
- six pointer
- smart pointer
- station pointer
- telepointer
- three-pointer
- white pointer
- wild pointer
Phrases with pointer
Words that rhyme with pointer
Questions about pointer
- What does pointer mean?
- Pointer means one who points.
- What is pointer in Tamil?
- Pointer in Tamil is குறிமுள், சுட்டுமுள், காட்டி. See Pointer meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pointer in a sentence?
- I sidled closer and heard the pointer accuse the other man of cheating.
- What part of speech is pointer?
- Pointer can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pointer?
- Pointer is pronounced /ˈpɔɪn.tə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pointer?
- The plural of pointer is pointers.
Words near pointer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pointer (page history and authors); Pointer (page history and authors); pointer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اشارہ گر (Urdu) (page history and authors); pointer (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); సలహా (Telugu) (page history and authors); pointer (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ಸಲಹೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); pointer (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pointer (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-pointer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pointer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pointer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.