# sign

Pronunciation: say "SYN" /saɪn/

## Verb

1. To write one's signature on a document, register, or other item, to make it valid, agree to it, or identify oneself.
   - Simple: To write your name in your own way on something, for example to agree to it.
   - _The two presidents will sign the treaty at a ceremony next week._
   - _The director signed the contract, making the deal binding._
4. To commit by contract to play for a sports team, record for a label, or the like; of a team or label, to take someone on under such a contract.
   - Simple: To agree by contract to play or work for a team or company, or to hire someone that way.
   - _Several free agents sign with new teams every offseason._
   - _The band finally signed with an independent label._
10. To communicate using sign language.
   - Simple: To talk using sign language.
   - _Many hearing children of deaf parents sign fluently._
   - _She signed throughout the entire presentation._
12. To communicate something to someone with a gesture or signal.
   - Simple: To tell someone something by moving your hands or making a signal.
   - _Lifeguards sign to swimmers when the water gets rough._
   - _With a flick of his flashlight, the usher signed for us to follow._
13. In computing, to add a cryptographic digital signature to software, a file, or a message, which proves its source and shows it has not been changed.
   - Simple: To add a coded digital mark to an app, file, or message that proves who sent it and that nobody changed it.
   - _Each update is signed with the company's private key before it is released to users._
   - _Sign the installer with your code-signing certificate so that users don't see a security warning._
15. To provide a road or route with signs.
   - Simple: To put up road signs along a road or path.
   - _Local authorities must sign every junction along the new highway._
   - _Volunteers signed the entire route before the marathon._
17. To mark something, or to put or leave a mark on it.
   - Simple: To make or leave a mark on something.
19. To make the sign of the cross over oneself or over someone or something, as a blessing.
   - Simple: To move your hand in the shape of a cross over yourself or someone as a blessing.
   - _The old woman signed herself three times before the altar._
   - _Devout travelers would sign themselves whenever they passed a roadside shrine._

## Noun

2. A clearly visible, usually flat object bearing a short message in words or pictures.
   - Simple: A flat board with words or pictures that tells people something.
   - _The shop hung a new sign above its front door._
   - _Road signs along the highway guide travelers to the right exit._
3. A visible fact showing that something exists or is likely to happen.
   - Simple: Something you can see that shows what is true or what might happen.
   - _A faint tremor can be an early sign of a larger earthquake._
   - _Investigators searched for any sign of forced entry._
5. A mark or symbol used to represent something else.
   - Simple: A mark or shape that stands for something.
   - _In math, the equals sign shows that two amounts are the same._
   - _Each currency has its own sign, such as the dollar sign._
6. An event or thing taken as a warning or message about what is to come, sometimes seen as sent by God.
   - Simple: Something that happens and seems to warn about or promise something in the future.
   - _The comet was taken by some as a sign of coming disaster._
   - _In old tales, a howling wind at midnight was an evil sign._
7. One of the twelve divisions of the zodiac, associated with a person's date of birth.
   - Simple: One of the twelve groups in astrology, linked to the date you were born.
   - _He reads the horoscope for his sign every morning._
   - _The two friends share the same astrological sign._
8. A bodily property that points to a disease and, unlike a symptom, can be observed objectively by someone other than the patient.
   - Simple: Something a doctor can see or measure that shows a person may be ill.
   - _Small white spots inside the cheeks are an early sign of measles that doctors look for._
   - _Yellow skin is a recognized sign of liver trouble._
11. A language of hand movements and facial expressions used instead of speech, known as sign language, or a single gesture in it that stands for a word or idea.
   - Simple: A language that uses hand movements and facial expressions instead of speech, or one gesture in it that means a word.
   - _Their whole family converses in sign at the dinner table._
   - _She interprets between spoken English and sign._
14. The positive or negative property of a number, indicated by a plus or minus mark.
   - Simple: Whether a number is positive or negative, shown by a plus or minus mark.
   - _When you multiply two negatives, the sign of the result is positive._
   - _If you change the sign of seven, you get negative seven._
16. Physical evidence, such as tracks or droppings, left behind by an animal. *(Australia, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: Tracks, droppings, or other marks that show an animal has been nearby.
   - _Trackers read the sign on the forest floor to learn which animals had passed._
   - _The guide pointed out fresh sign near the riverbank, where elk had come to drink._
18. A unit that conveys meaning or information, such as a word; in linguistics, a pairing of a perceptible form and the concept it stands for.
   - Simple: Anything that stands for an idea or carries meaning, like a word or a picture.
   - _In language, each sign links a sound or written form to a concept in our minds._
   - _A flag can act as a sign, carrying meaning far beyond its cloth and color._
9. A gesture or motion of the body used to pass a message to another person.
   - Simple: A movement of your hand, head or body that tells someone something.
   - _The catcher flashed a sign to the pitcher before every throw._
   - _She caught the waiter's eye and made the sign for the check._

## Verb

20. To set an identifying mark or seal upon a document or similar item. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To close or mark a document with a special seal or symbol.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To determine whether a quantity is positive or negative.
- (noun) An emblem of a military force, carried aloft on a flag or standard.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–3, 5–8, 11, 14, 16, 18** — Latin signum ("a mark, sign, token"), whose deeper origin is uncertain, gave both Old English seġn, meaning "sign, mark, token," and Old French signe or seing, meaning "sign, mark, signature," and the two fed into Middle English. The English word is a doublet of signum.
**Meanings 1, 4, 9–10, 12–13, 15, 17, 19–20** — Latin signum ("a mark, sign") produced the verb signāre ("to mark, seal, indicate, signify"). Middle English signen drew partly on Anglo-Norman seigner and Old French signer and partly on Old English seġnian ("to mark, sign"), all of which come from that Latin verb.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sign (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).