Belisha beacon
a device that sends out a radio signal to show the position of something such as a ship, aircraft, etc.:
A plane's transponder is a beacon that transmits an identifying code.
Planes fly along air corridors marked by ground-based radio beacons.
a good example that gives people hope or encouragement:
She was a beacon of hope in troubled times.
He said Britain could become a beacon to the rest of the world.
Boston Light on Little Brewster Island is the only beacon still manned by an active-duty Coast Guard crew.
At the far end of the street, headlights shine like a beacon.
Robot taxis would respond to electronic signals from navigation beacons.
He developed a beacon to locate skiers buried in an avalanche.
Dubai was transformed from an ancient Persian Gulf port into a glitzy international hub of spas and skyscrapers - and a beacon of modernity for the Arab world.
"How can the United States uphold our position as a beacon for the free exchange of ideas and science if we ourselves censor authors?" he asks.
He continued to believe in the idea of racial justice in America. And that's what makes him such a beacon.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Specific signs and symbols
argent
badge
blue badge
Britannia
caduceus
check something off
dot
Greek cross
Kitemark
L-plate
Maltese cross
Mayday
Morse code
patch
pipe
registered trademark
semaphore
trademark
vert
X, x

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Fire & flame
Signs, signals and symbols
Broadcasting: radio
Encouraging and urging on

beacon | American Dictionary

beacon
noun[ C ]
us/ˈbi·kən/
a light that acts as a signal or warning:
fig. a beacon of hope
A beacon is also a device that sends a signal or information:
a radar/navigation beacon

Examples of beacon

beacon
The spacecraft sends a beacon signal to the ground indicating how urgent it is to track the spacecraft for telemetry.
One explanation for this finding could be related to the sequence characteristics of the molecular beacons and adjacent primers.
The alternate nucleotide was positioned in the middle of the loop sequence of the beacons.
Moreover, the strength of this technique lies in the determination of the most likely beacon location based on the measurements and supporting statistical information.
Lighting of the alabaster curtain wall so that at night it would light the church interior and act as a beacon to the community outside.
The buildings (there are two exactly similar) take ambiguity and abstraction further in an attempt to create simple beacons of beauty in a chaotic landscape.
New-style education appeared as a seemingly universal beacon of hope, particularly when it was meant to convey a reworked but "traditionally" inspired notion of morality.
The speaker does not yearn for heavenly light, but a humble "beacon" of human manufacture.
But what does 'unsupported' really mean in these days of satellite telephones, emergency beacons, and ski-equipped aircraft?
To many in the environmental movement, that report still stands as a beacon of sense in the foolish world of economics.
Genes causing inherited cancer as beacons identifying the mechanisms of chemoresistance.
This will enable the vehicle to be deployed in a broader range of environments without the need to introduce artificial beacons.
This need, coupled with strict intrinsically safe equipment requirements, essentially precludes the use of conventional trailing-type communication cables or radio beacons.
The subset of fast pulsars to be considered for use as beacons is rather small.
Figure 2 presents a comparison of distance errors in observations for both beacons and goals.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.