pointer

See also: Pointer

English

Etymology

point +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɪntə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: point‧er
• Rhymes: -ɔɪntə(ɹ)

Noun

pointer (plural pointers)

teacher's pointer

needle of a measuring device

pointer (dog)

1. Anything that points or is used for pointing.
2. A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow
3. A needle-like component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device.
5. A breed of hunting dog, trained to point out game.
6. (programming) A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored.
7. (computing) An icon that indicates the position of the mouse; a cursor.
8. (chiefly in the plural) A tip, a bit of advice.

   The instructor gave me some pointers on writing a good paper.

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

   a ten-pointer

   • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     After another penalty miss, Kvirikashvili finally found the target on 27 minutes before Flood hit back with a three-pointer of his own.

Synonyms

• (teacher's pointer): fescue
• (of a timepiece): hand
• (of a measuring device): needle
• (icon): cursor
• (programming) reference

Hyponyms

• dangling pointer
• function pointer
• null pointer
• white pointer

 

Translations

anything that points or is used for pointing

• Bashkir: күрһәткес (kürhətkes)
• Belarusian: ука́зка f (ukázka)
• Bulgarian: показа́лка f (pokazálka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 教鞭 (zh) (jiàobiān) (esp. teacher's pointer), 指示棍 (zhǐshìgùn)

• Finnish: osoitin (fi)
• French: aiguille (fr) f, baguette (fr) f
• German: Zeigestock m, Zeigestab m
• Hungarian: mutató (hu)
• Italian: bacchetta (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 文字さし (もじさし, mojisashi), 教鞭 (ja) (きょうべん, kyōben), 指し棒 (さしぼう, sashibō)
• Korean: 교편 (ko) (gyopyeon), 지시봉 (jisibong)
• Kurdish:
• Malay: penuding
• Polish: wskaźnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: ponteiro (pt) m
• Russian: ука́зка (ru) f (ukázka) (e.g. teacher or instructor), указа́тель (ru) m (ukazátelʹ)
• Spanish: puntero (es) m
• Ukrainian: ука́зка (ukázka)
• Vietnamese: que chỉ

teacher's pointer

• Belarusian: ука́зка f (ukázka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 教鞭 (zh) (jiàobiān)

• Finnish: karttakeppi (fi)
• German: Zeigestock m, Zeigestab m
• Italian: bacchetta (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 指し棒 (さしぼう, sashibō)
• Korean: 지시봉 (jisibong)
• Russian: ука́зка (ru) f (ukázka)
• Spanish: puntero (es) m
• Swedish: pekpinne (sv) c
• Ukrainian: ука́зка f (ukázka)

of a timepiece or measuring device

• Belarusian: стрэ́лка f (strélka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 指針／指针 (zh) (zhǐzhēn), 指针 (zh) (zhǐzhēn)

• Finnish: osoitin (fi), viisari (fi) (colloquial)
• French: aiguille (fr) f
• German: Zeiger (de) m
• Italian: indicatore (it) m
• Japanese: 指針 (ja) (ししん, shishin)
• Korean: 바늘 (ko) (baneul), 지침 (ko) (jichim)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish: ,
• Malay: jarum penunjuk
• Polish: wskazówka (pl) f
• Portuguese: ponteiro (pt) m
• Russian: стре́лка (ru) m (strélka)
• Serbo-Croatian: kazaljka (sh) f
• Spanish: aguja (es) f
• Swedish: visare (sv) c
• Ukrainian: стрі́лка f (strílka)

dog

• Finnish: pointteri (fi), seisoja (fi), kanakoira
• French: braque (fr) m, chien d’arrêt (fr)
• German: Vorstehhund
• Ido: brako (io)
• Italian: puntatore m, cane da punta m, bracco (it) m
• Kurdish:
• Malay: anjing penuding
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: wyżeł (pl) m
• Portuguese: pointer (pt) m
• Russian: по́йнтер (ru) m (pójntɛr)
• Scottish Gaelic: cù-eunaich m
• Spanish: perro de muestra, braco
• Swedish: pointer (sv) c

computer programming: variable that stores the address of another variable

• Catalan: apuntador (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 指標／指标 (zh) (zhǐbiāo), 指标 (zh) (zhǐbiāo), 指針／指针 (zh) (zhǐzhēn), 指针 (zh) (zhǐzhēn)

• Czech: ukazatel (cs) m
• Dutch: pointer (nl)
• Estonian: viit
• Finnish: osoitin (fi), pointteri (fi) (colloquial)
• French: pointeur (fr) m
• German: Zeiger (de) m
• Greek: δείκτης (el) m (deíktis)
• Icelandic: bendir m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: puntatore m
• Japanese: ポインタ (ja) (pointa)
• Korean: 포인터 (pointeo)
• Kurdish:
• Malay: penuding
• Polish: wskaźnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: ponteiro (pt) m
• Russian: указа́тель (ru) m (ukazátelʹ), по́йнтер (ru) m (pójntɛr)
• Serbo-Croatian: kazaljka (sh) f, pokazivač (sh) m
• Spanish: apuntador (es) m, puntero (es) m
• Swedish: pekare (sv) c

computing: icon indicating mouse position — see cursor

advice — see advice

See also

• (programming) dereference, address

See also

• Wikipedia article on the pointer, the dog
• Wikipedia article on pointers in computer programming

Anagrams

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

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Dutch

Etymology

From English pointer.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pointer m (plural pointers, diminutive pointertje n)

1. (programming) pointer

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French

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pwɛ̃.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

Conjugation of pointer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pointer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pointant /pwɛ̃.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pointé /pwɛ̃.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pointe /pwɛ̃t/	pointes /pwɛ̃t/	pointe /pwɛ̃t/	pointons /pwɛ̃.tɔ̃/	pointez /pwɛ̃.te/	pointent /pwɛ̃t/
	imperfect	pointais /pwɛ̃.tɛ/	pointais /pwɛ̃.tɛ/	pointait /pwɛ̃.tɛ/	pointions /pwɛ̃.tjɔ̃/	pointiez /pwɛ̃.tje/	pointaient /pwɛ̃.tɛ/
	past historic2	pointai /pwɛ̃.te/	pointas /pwɛ̃.ta/	pointa /pwɛ̃.ta/	pointâmes /pwɛ̃.tam/	pointâtes /pwɛ̃.tat/	pointèrent /pwɛ̃.tɛʁ/
	future	pointerai /pwɛ̃.tʁe/	pointeras /pwɛ̃.tʁa/	pointera /pwɛ̃.tʁa/	pointerons /pwɛ̃.tʁɔ̃/	pointerez /pwɛ̃.tʁe/	pointeront /pwɛ̃.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pointerais /pwɛ̃.tʁɛ/	pointerais /pwɛ̃.tʁɛ/	pointerait /pwɛ̃.tʁɛ/	pointerions /pwɛ̃.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	pointeriez /pwɛ̃.tə.ʁje/	pointeraient /pwɛ̃.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	pointe /pwɛ̃t/	pointes /pwɛ̃t/	pointe /pwɛ̃t/	pointions /pwɛ̃.tjɔ̃/	pointiez /pwɛ̃.tje/	pointent /pwɛ̃t/
	imperfect2	pointasse /pwɛ̃.tas/	pointasses /pwɛ̃.tas/	pointât /pwɛ̃.ta/	pointassions /pwɛ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/	pointassiez /pwɛ̃.ta.sje/	pointassent /pwɛ̃.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pointe /pwɛ̃t/	—	pointons /pwɛ̃.tɔ̃/	pointez /pwɛ̃.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Synonyms

• (to show up): arriver

Derived terms

• pointage

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English pointer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pwɛ̃.tɛʁ/

Noun

pointer m (plural pointers)

1. pointer (dog)

Further reading

• “pointer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Noun

pointer m (plural s)

1. pointer (breed of hunting dog)