Word.ws English Dictionary

waywiser

/ˈweɪˌwaɪ.zɚ/

waywiser noun: an instrument for measuring distance travelled, such as an odometer, pedometer, perambulator, etc.

Noun

waywiser (plural waywisers)

  1. An instrument for measuring distance travelled, such as an odometer, pedometer, perambulator, etc.
    • I went to see Colonel Blount, who showed me the application of the "Waywiser" to a coach, exactly measuring the miles and showing them by an index as we went along.1656, John Evelyn, Diary
    • The Emperor Rudolphus II had a curious waywiser or odometer which is attributed to Schissler.1902, Alice Morse Earle, Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday
  2. An instrument for determining direction (and possibly other aspects of one's travel as well).
    • Not being accustomed to this cruciform movement, I was not able, by the waywiser, to determine the real direction of the balloon, and on this account M. Robertson suffered to escape a considerable quantity of gas; on which we again fell till the barometer stood at 29 inches, about 50 minutes past...1832, Thomas Forster, Annals of Some Remarkable Aërial and Alpine Voyages
    • THE Waywiser is an instrument whereby a man may steer himself where there is no path, or underground, in a mine; or find his way if he have lost it.1859, Frederick Robert Augustus Glover, The Polymeter, Or Quintant
  3. (figuratively) A guide; A means of determining the direction in which to proceed.
    • We have not sought to make a treatise, but only to set up a waywiser or signpost to show the road the law is taking .1931, Justice of the Peace and Local Government Review, page 461
    • In previous volumes we have often given a few words of help to the prospective reader, intended as a sort of waywiser to guide him through those pages not always possible to lighten by some memorable illustration .1974, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, page xxxiii

Examples of waywiser in a sentence

  • Therefore, Elector Augustus did all he could to promote the development of mechanical waywisers that would be able to do this work automatically.2009, Wolfram Dolz, “The Waywisers of Elector Augustus of Saxony and Their New Use in the Survey of Saxon Postal Roads”, in European...
  • Not being accustomed to this cruciform movement, I was not able, by the waywiser, to determine the real direction of the balloon, and on this account M.1832, Thomas Forster, Annals of Some Remarkable Aërial and Alpine Voyages:
  • The purpose of the waywiser was to enable a navigator to keep a track of a ship's location by measuring and recording the speed and direction of its journey.2002, Stephen Inwood, The Man Who Knew Too Much:

Forms of waywiser

pluralwaywisers

Origin of waywiser

Compare German Wegweiser (“a waymark, a guide”), from Weg (“way”) + weisen (“to show, direct”).

Questions about waywiser

What does waywiser mean?
Waywiser means an instrument for measuring distance travelled, such as an odometer, pedometer, perambulator, etc.
How do you use waywiser in a sentence?
Therefore, Elector Augustus did all he could to promote the development of mechanical waywisers that would be able to do this work automatically.
What part of speech is waywiser?
Waywiser is a noun.
How do you pronounce waywiser?
Waywiser is pronounced /ˈweɪˌwaɪ.zɚ/.
What is the plural of waywiser?
The plural of waywiser is waywisers.

Words near waywiser in the dictionary

  1. waywardens
  2. waywardly
  3. waywardness
  4. waywardnesses
  5. waywise
  6. waywiser
  7. waywisers
  8. waywod
  9. waywoda
  10. waywodas
  11. waywode

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waywiser (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: “waywiser.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/waywiser. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.