Beacon

How to spell beacon

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce beacon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beacon mean?

1. nounA light, fire, or signal set up high to guide, warn, or attract attention.

Beacon in a sentence

• The lighthouse beacon swept across the dark harbour every few seconds.

• A mountain rescue team followed the distress beacon to the stranded climbers.

Where does beacon come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word that traces back to the Old English beacn, meaning a sign, a signal, or a standard raised aloft, which itself came from a West Germanic root shared with the Old Saxon bocan and the Old High German bouhhan. In its earliest use a beacon was literally a signal, often a fire lit on a hilltop to warn of danger or to summon help, which is why the word is so closely tied to ideas of light and guidance. Over the centuries the sense broadened from any warning sign to the specific tall fires, lighthouses, and later radio and navigational signals that guide travellers. The same Germanic root also gave us the verb 'beckon', meaning to signal someone with a gesture, so beacon and beckon are genuine cousins. The tricky part of the spelling is the unstressed second syllable, which sounds like a vague 'kun' but is written -con, an ending that has stayed stable since the Middle English period.

How the word is built

• beacon (from Old English beacn: a sign, signal, or standard)