signpost

See also: sign-post

English

A signpost

Alternative forms

• sign-post

Etymology

sign +‎ post

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

signpost (plural signposts)

1. A post bearing a sign that gives information on directions.
2. (cryptic crosswords) A word or phrase within a clue that serves as an indicator, rather than being fodder.
   • 2012, David Astle, Puzzled: Secrets and clues from a life in words:

     In the first example — Dance revolutionised Burma — you know the middle word is the signpost as revolutionised is too long to be the fodder (or letters to scramble). […] And bang, out jumps RUMBA.

Translations

post bearing a sign that gives information on directions

• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: паказа́льнік m (pakazálʹnik), паказа́льны слуп m (pakazálʹny slup)
• Bulgarian: пътепоказа́тел (bg) m (pǎtepokazátel)
• Catalan: rètol (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 路標／路标 (zh) (lùbiāo)

• Czech: rozcestník (cs) m, směrová tabule f
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: wegwijzer (nl) m
• Faroese: vegvísari m
• Finnish: tienviitta (fi), viitta (fi)
• French: poteau indicateur (fr) m
• Galician: letreiro (gl) m
• German: Signalposten m, Wegweiser (de) m, Signalpfosten m, Richtungsweiser m, Schild (de) n, Hinweisschild (de) n
• Greek: οδοδείκτης (el) m (ododeíktis)
• Hungarian: útjelző/irányjelző/útirányjelző tábla
• Indonesian: plang (id)
• Irish: craobh eolais f, cuaille eolais m, maide eolais m
• Italian: cartello (it) m
• Japanese: 道標 (ja) (どうひょう, dōhyō, みちじるし, michijirushi)
• Korean: 푯말 (pyonmal), 표지판 (pyojipan)
• Macedonian: патоказ m (patokaz)
• Malayalam: വഴികാട്ടി (ml) (vaḻikāṭṭi)
• Manx: stowran cowree m
• Maori: poutohu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: retningsskilt n

  Nynorsk: retningsskilt n

• Polish: drogowskaz (pl) m, kierunkowskaz (pl) m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: indicator rutier n, indicator (ro) n, indicator de drum n
• Russian: указа́тельный столб m (ukazátelʹnyj stolb), указа́тель (ru) m (ukazátelʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пу̏тока̄з m

  Roman: pȕtokāz (sh) m

• Silesian: wegwajzer m, rankoś m
• Slovak: ukazovateľ m
• Slovene: kažipot m, pokazatelj m
• Spanish: letrero (es) m
• Ukrainian: пока́жчик m (pokážčyk), дороговка́з m (dorohovkáz), шляховка́зувач m (šljaxovkázuvač), дороговка́зувач m (dorohovkázuvač), вказівни́й стовп m (vkazivnýj stovp)
• Welsh: arwyddbost m, mynegbost m

Verb

signpost (third-person singular simple present signposts, present participle signposting, simple past and past participle signposted)

1. (transitive) To install signposts on.

   The route wasn't signposted, and we got lost on the way.

2. (transitive) To direct (somebody) to services, resources, etc.
   • 2008, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee, Valuing and Supporting Carers (volume 1, page 31)

     We believe that some Carers' Centres already offer an effective 'first stop shop' for signposting carers to local organisations, services and benefits, and for providing ongoing support as carers' circumstances change.

3. To indicate logical progress of a discourse using words or phrases such as now, right, to recap, to sum up, as I was saying, etc.
   • 2013 August 8, Charlotte Mulcare, “The lost mathematicians: Numbers in the (not so) dark ages”, in plus.maths.org‎^[1], retrieved 2013-09-08:

     Bede, never one to shrink from a challenge, focused his energies not only onto calculating Easter but also onto describing why the maths mattered as much as the result. In this, his elevated rhetoric is balanced by a very human enthusiasm — it's hard not to love a writer who signposts his core hypotheses with phrases such as 'now to gut the bowels of this question!'

4. To signal, as if with a signpost.

Translations

install signposts

• Catalan: senyalitzar (ca)
• Dutch: bewegwijzeren (nl)
• Finnish: viitoittaa (fi)
• Galician: sinalizar
• German: ausschildern (de), beschildern (de)
• Hungarian: kitábláz (hu), táblával/táblákkal jelez/jelöl, jelzőtáblával/jelzőtáblákkal ellát
• Portuguese: sinalizar (pt)
• Spanish: señalizar (es)

See also

• fingerpost
• guidepost
• waymark

Anagrams

• postings, stop sign, stopings, stopsign