different between portent vs pointer

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin portentum, participle of portendere, from portend? (“I predict, I foretell”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??t?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p??t?nt/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?po(?)?t?nt/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?po?t?nt/

Noun

portent (plural portents)

1. Something that portends an event about to occur, especially an unfortunate or evil event; an omen.
2. A portending; significance

3. Something regarded as portentous; a marvel; prodigy.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:omen

Related terms

• portend
• portentous

Translations

References

Anagrams

• torpent

French

Pronunciation

Verb

portent

1. third-person plural present indicative of porter
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of porter

Latin

Verb

portent

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of port?

English

Etymology

point +? -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??nt?/
• Hyphenation: point?er
• Rhymes: -??nt?(?)

Noun

pointer (plural pointers)

1. Anything that points or is used for pointing.
2. A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow.

   Synonym: fescue

   Hyponym: yad

3. A needle-like component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.

   Synonyms: hand, needle

5. (hunting) A breed of hunting dog, trained to point out game.
   • 2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books (?ISBN), page 30:

     Most of the early wirehaired pointers represented a combination of Griffon, Stichelhaar, Pudelpointer, and German Shorthair. The Pudelpointer was a cross between a Poodle dog and an English Pointer bitch; the Griffon and the Stichelhaar were composed of Pointer, Foxhound, Pudelpointer, and a Polish water dog.

6. (programming) A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.

   Synonym: reference

   Hyponyms: dangling pointer, function pointer, null pointer
7. (graphical user interface) An icon that indicates the position of the pointing device, such as a mouse.

   Synonym: cursor

   • 1995, Aaron Marcus, Nick Smilonich, Lynne Thompson, The Cross-GUI Handbook, Addison-Wesley ?ISBN, page 231:

     The system notifies the user of the progress of a task by changing the appearance of the pointer. System-busy pointers usually adopt a timepiece metaphor.

8. (chiefly in the plural) A tip, a bit of advice.

   Synonym: advice

1. (in combinations) Something worth a given number of points.

Translations

See also

• (programming) dereference, address

Further reading

• pointer (dog) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (computer programming) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (user interface) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• pointer (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Petrino, Petroni, interop, protein, pterion, repoint, tropein, tropine

Dutch

Etymology

From English pointer.

Pronunciation

Noun

pointer m (plural pointers, diminutive pointertje n)

1. (programming) pointer

French

Etymology 1

point +? -er, from the past participle of poindre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw??.te/
• Homophones: pointai, pointé, pointée, pointées, pointés, pointez
• Rhymes: -e

Verb

pointer

1. to point to/at
2. (by extension) to indicate, to show, to point out
3. to punch in, to clock in
4. (informal, takes a reflexive pronoun) to show up, turn up

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to show up): arriver

Derived terms

• pointage
• pointer du doigt
• zéro pointé

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English pointer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw??.t??/

Noun

pointer m (plural pointers)

1. pointer (dog)

Further reading

• “pointer” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Noun

pointer m (plural pointers)

1. pointer (breed of hunting dog)