pointing

Noun

pointing (countable and uncountable, plural pointings)

1. The action of the verb to point.
   • For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning
2. The filling of joints in brickwork or masonry with mortar.
   • The necessary works were extensive and included replacing missing and damaged slates and other roof repairs (in order to make the building watertight), pointing and drainpipe replacement, and extensive replacement of rotten floorboarding.2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Southeastern Commercial Restoration Award: Appledore”, in RAIL, number 946, pages 56–57
3. (collective, proscribed, singular, sometimes, usually) Mortar that has been placed between bricks to fill the gap.
4. The act or art of punctuating; punctuation.
5. The rubbing off of the point of the wheat grain in the first process of high milling.
6. The act or process of measuring, at the various distances from the surface of a block of marble, the surface of a future piece of statuary; also, a process used in cutting the statue from the artist's model.
7. (uncountable, Anglicanism) The practice of placing metrical marks in a text (typically a psalm), which indicate the syllables on which the chant should progress to the next note, as well as features such as pauses.
8. (countable, Anglicanism) A particular arrangement of such marks within a given text.
   • Psalm pointings sometimes differ between psalters.
9. Synonym of nikud.
   • In this chapter, for any word from the Hebrew component of Yiddish, the spelling of the corresponding Hebrew etymon is given, with the diacritical signs corresponding to its vowels according to the Tiberian pointing.2015, Alexander Beider, Origins of Yiddish Dialects, Oxford University Press, page 245, note 45

   Synonyms:

   nikud