Adjacent Words

pinpoint definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a very brief moment; "they were strangers sharing a pinpoint of time together"
2: a very small spot; "the plane was just a speck in the sky" [syn: speck, pinpoint]
3: the sharp point of a pin v
1: locate exactly; "can you pinpoint the position of the enemy?"; "The chemists could not nail the identity of the chromosome" [syn: pinpoint, nail]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 1849 1. something that is extremely small or insignificant 2. the point of a pin 3. an extremely small or sharp point II. adjective Date: 1897 1. extremely fine or precise 2. located, fixed, or directed with extreme precision <pinpoint targets> 3. small as a pinpoint III. transitive verb Date: 1917 1. to locate or aim with great precision or accuracy <pinpoint a source> 2. a. to fix, determine, or identify with precision <pinpoint the cause> b. to cause to stand out conspicuously ; highlight

U.S. Military Dictionary

(*) 1. A precisely identified point, especially on the ground, that locates a very small target, a reference point for rendezvous or for other purposes; the coordinates that define this point. 2. The ground position of aircraft determined by direct observation of the ground.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 the point of a pin. 2 something very small or sharp. 3 (attrib.) a very small. b precise, accurate. --v.tr. locate with precision (pinpointed the target).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pinpoints, pinpointing, pinpointed) 1. If you pinpoint the cause of something, you discover or explain the cause exactly. It was almost impossible to pinpoint the cause of death. ...if you can pinpoint exactly what the anger is about... The commission pinpoints inadequate housing as a basic problem threatening village life. = identify VERB: V n, V wh, V n as n 2. If you pinpoint something or its position, you discover or show exactly where it is. I could pinpoint his precise location on a map... Computers pinpointed where the shells were coming from. VERB: V n, V wh 3. If something is placed with pinpoint accuracy, it is placed in exactly the right place or position. ...the pinpoint accuracy of the bombing campaigns. ADJ: ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

abode, account for, accredit with, accrete to, acknowledge, allocate, apply to, area, ascribe to, assign, assign to, attach to, attribute to, bearings, bench mark, blame, blame for, blame on, bring home to, charge on, charge to, close, collocate, confess, connect with, constant, credit with, crumb, delicate, deploy, determinate, diagnose, direct, dispose, distinguish, district, dot, drop, droplet, emplace, emplacement, even, exact, express, faithful, fasten upon, father upon, fine, finger, fix, fix on, fix upon, fleck, flyspeck, get a fix, gnat, grain, hang on, hole, home in on, home on, identify, impute to, inerrable, inerrant, infallible, install, iota, jot, latitude and longitude, lay to, lieu, locale, locality, localize, locate, location, locus, map, mathematical, microbe, micrometrically precise, microorganism, microscopic, midge, minim, minutia, minutiae, mite, mote, navigate, nice, particle, pick up, pin down, pin on, pinhead, place, place upon, placement, point, point to, position, precise, put in place, receive, recognize, refer to, refined, region, religious, religiously exact, rigid, rigorous, saddle on, saddle with, scan, scientific, scientifically exact, scrap, set down to, settle upon, severe, site, situate, situation, situs, snip, snippet, speck, spot, square, stead, strict, subtle, sweep, tittle, triangulate, trigger, tune in, undeviating, unerring, vanishing point, whereabout, whereabouts, zero in on