alert
Noun pluralalerts
Formsalerts, alerting, alerted
Pluralalerts
- 1Watchful and fully awake, ready to notice danger and respond quickly.
The nurse remained alert through her entire double shift, catching every change in the patient.
Soldiers on watch must stay alert for the smallest movement in the dark.
Similarwakeful
Oppositeinattentive, drowsy, sleepy
Note
The image behind it is a sentry on a tower. French alerte comes from à l'erte, "on the watch," and that from Italian all'erta, "to the height," built on erta, a lookout. Wakeful means only not asleep, while alert adds readiness to notice and act. It compares with more alert and most alert, not alerter.
- 2To warn someone of a danger or problem so they can prepare or respond.
Neighbors rushed to alert the family about the rising floodwaters.
A flashing light alerted the operator to the equipment failure.
Note
The verb was made from the adjective with no change of form, so to alert someone is, quite literally, to make them alert. Its typical construction names the danger with to: the light alerted the operator to the failure. About also works, as in alerting a family about floodwaters. The past tense and past participle are both alerted.
- 3
- 4A notification that signals greater importance or urgency than an advisory.
Emergency services issued an alert urging residents to gather supplies.
Each alert appears above routine messages at the top of the screen.
Similarwarning, notification
- 5A condition of military readiness maintained in preparation for possible combat.
The squadron was placed on full alert after the border incident.
Command lifted the alert once the threat had passed.
Note
Military usage makes alert a condition a unit is in rather than a signal it hears: forces are placed on alert, kept on alert, taken off alert. It takes qualifiers that say where the readiness is held, as in an airborne alert or a ground alert. That separates it from the alarm itself: the siren sounds the alert, and the squadron then stands on one.
- 6A control character that causes a device to produce an audible signal, equivalent to the bell character.
Printing an alert causes the terminal to beep instead of showing a visible mark.
The old console answered every alert with a short electronic chirp.
Note
A programmer's name for the bell character. The two words refer to the same nonprinting control character, and either may turn up in technical writing. It is a character sent within a stream of text, not a message shown on screen, which keeps it distinct from the urgent notification that software also calls an alert. Both, fittingly, exist to catch attention.
Less common meaning
- 7Brisk and nimble in movement; quick and light on one's feet.
I saw an alert young fellow that cocked his hat upon a friend of his who entered just at the same time with myself
1712, [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, June 12, 1712”Note
An obsolete use where the word describes quick, lively movement rather than watchfulness. When Addison and Steele wrote of "an alert young fellow" in 1712, they meant a brisk one, sprightly in his bearing. A modern reader hears "attentive" instead. In old texts, read it as nimble. In new writing, choose brisk or nimble, since alert will be taken as the watchful meaning.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of alert apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
From French alerte ('alert'), from the phrase à l'erte ('on the watch'), which came from Italian all'erta ('to the height'), from erta ('lookout, tower').
Formed within English by conversion from the adjective 'alert'; compare French alerter.