GPS

FormsGPSes, GPSing, GPSed

1. 1
   noununcountableinitialism

   Initialism of global positioning system.

   The survey crew relied on GPS to fix the boundary markers within centimeters.

   Airliners now navigate primarily by GPS rather than ground-based beacons.

   Note

   Three letters can name two things here. One is the American military satellite constellation itself. The other is any satellite positioning system, with Russia's GLONASS and the European Galileo included. Without an article, it names the service (navigate by GPS). It also works freely as a modifier, as in the GPS jammer that Paul Clifton described in RAIL in 2025, a device that can send drones flying off at random.

2. 2
   nouncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of GPS receiver.

   The sailor checked the handheld GPS to confirm the boat's heading.

   Cyclists clip a small GPS onto the handlebars to record each ride.

   Note

   The device rather than the network: drop receiver from GPS receiver and the letters name the unit itself. In its narrowest use it is the navigation box fitted to a car. More broadly, it is any device reading any satellite network. Here it is countable, with an article and a plural: a handheld GPS, two GPSes. By contrast, the satellite system mostly goes without one: navigate by GPS.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To determine the location of something by using a GPS device or system.

   Rescue teams GPS each stranded climber before sending in the helicopter.

   Dispatchers GPS every vehicle in the fleet to monitor delivery routes.

   Similarlocate, track, pinpoint

   Note

   Verbed straight from the initialism, it keeps its capitals and conjugates like any regular verb: GPSes, GPSing, GPSed. The endings attach directly, with no hyphen or apostrophe. It is transitive, taking the thing being located as its object, as in they GPSed the stolen car. In speech, the letters are pronounced one by one before each ending.

4. 4
   noununcountableinitialism

   Initialism of Goodpasture syndrome.

   Doctors started plasma exchange as soon as the bloodwork pointed to GPS.

   Untreated GPS can progress rapidly to severe respiratory and renal failure.

   Note

   A clinical abbreviation that shares its letters with the satellite system, so outside a medical setting it is safer spelled out. Goodpasture syndrome is rare: antibodies attack the basement membrane of the lungs and kidneys, causing lung bleeding and kidney failure. Like most disease names, it usually goes without an article, as in tests pointed to GPS.

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