Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tall structure topped by a powerful light used as a beacon or signal to aid marine navigation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A tower or other structure exhibiting a light or lights, for the purpose of indicating the presence of rocks, shoals, or other dangers to navigation, or for the guidance of mariners when approaching or sailing along a coast, entering a harbor, or navigating a river or other body of water. Lighthouses were formerly illuminated simply by means of a wood- or coal-fire, and afterward by candles and lamps. Coal-fires continued in general use till after the middle of the eighteenth century, and in some places many years later. The lamps in the lanterns of lighthouses in the United States are, for the most part, mechanical oil-lamps fitted with Argand burners, and employed with simple reflectors or with some form of the Fresnel lantern. Electric lighting has been tried in some lighthouses, but found objectionable on account of the depth of shadow produced by it in their immediate vicinity. In order that lighthouses may be distinguished by night, their lights vary in power, color, number, position, etc. As regards power, they are classified as of the first, second, third, or fourth order: the first two being employed in coast-lighthouses, and the others as sound-, harbor-, or river-lights. They may be fixed, revolving, flashing, or intermittent, in either single or combined colors: thus, a light may show two white flashes and a red flash followed by an interval of darkness, or the red and white flashes may alternate. These changes are obtained by various contrivances for causing the lenses, reflectors, or screens to travel in a circular path around the lamp, or to pass before it. Some lighthouses are painted with bands of color, or bear some other distinguishing mark, that their identity may be easily established in the daytime.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A tower or other building with a powerful light at top, erected at the entrance of a port, or at some important point on a coast, to serve as a guide to mariners at night; a pharos.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tower with a light that gives warning of shoals to passing ships
Etymologies
- light + house (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Serving no seafaring purpose, the lighthouse is a fascinating landmark on the prairies providing a spectacular view of the many lakes, beaches, and resorts in the area.”
The First World War Memoirs of Sampson J. Goodfellow, Part 6: Army Athletics
“The lighthouse is made of iron and was completed in 1872.”
“He has been living with his novia for the last three years and this year, she came down with him and after they climbed up on the hill where the worlds second highest natural lighthouse is located, he got down on his knees and asked her to marry.”
“In an essay on telecommunications pricing, Andrew Odlyzko spends some time reviewing the controversy about whether a lighthouse is necessarily a public good.”
“So the teacher preparation part will call for the identification of what we call lighthouse colleges, teacher colleges that are exemplary, that are clearly quality teacher colleges.”
“They had not got to the end of the headland where the lighthouse is – Briggs asked her to show him the lighthouse, because the path to it, he knew, was wide enough for two to walk abreast and fairly level – before he had told her of the impression she had made on him in London.”
“In the extension of the Mole-what we call a lighthouse extension-there were seven guns, and these guns could fire in any direction.”
“To me, Scorsese threw it in just to kind of leave you discussing/as a metaphor for the lobotomy (as Teddy had been convinced that the lighthouse was the scene of all the secret surgical operations on the island), but for me personally, the shot was there to say: It's just a lighthouse.”
/Filmcast Ep. 88 - Shutter Island (GUEST: C. Robert Cargill from Aint It Cool News) | /Film
“While Loch cannot spot land, seeing the top half of the lighthouse is his first glimpse in a week of any land-based structure.”
“Besides the beauty of its structure and location, the lighthouse is a rare piece of American Maritime History.”
Coast Guard gives public better access to Hospital Point Light House
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lighthouse’.
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Round buildings
Types of buildings that are round rather than rectangular.
yurt, tipi, hogan, wikiup, boma, teepee, tepee, round barn, lighthouse, rotunda, martello tower
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More Light!
light, lamp, Betty lamp, lightbulb, floor lamp, lantern, candle, gas mantle, Davy lamp, Geordie lamp, limelight, spotlight and 50 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, L
lisle, lahar, loupe, labret, latten, luster, lagomorph, lamentation, limicole, lunge, lobtail, latifolious and 182 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (L)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
labyrinth, lace, lad, lady fingers, lagoon, lamb, lament, lammas, lantern, larkspur, lass, lauds and 92 more...
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Maritime
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Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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kevincooper's Words
prosopopeia, lisle, magisterial, zeitgeist, zeugma, bloviate, apocryphal, bon mot, cacophony, euphony, brigandier, micturition and 313 more...
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Benandanti
All things Light
aureole, aura, aurora borealis, aglow, lucent, lambent, radiant, bright, burn, fire, solstice, brazier and 94 more...
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gorgonglare's list
the best
zeppelin, ion, laconic, serendipity, cataract, saturnine, syzygy, cinnabar, bistro, lithium, paroxysm, scion and 694 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
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The Sea
lighthouse, opalescent, horizon, tide, froth, albatross, atoll, splash, cliff, squall, windswept, current and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lighthouse.

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