pinpoint
Americanverb
noun
-
an insignificant or trifling thing
-
the point of a pin
-
(modifier) exact
a pinpoint aim
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pinpointsimple
-
pinpointssimple
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have pinpointedperfect
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has pinpointedperfect
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am pinpointingprogressive
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are pinpointingprogressive
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is pinpointingprogressive
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have been pinpointingperfect progressive
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has been pinpointingperfect progressive
Past
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pinpointedsimple
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had pinpointedperfect
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was pinpointingprogressive
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were pinpointingprogressive
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had been pinpointingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pinpoint
Explanation
To pinpoint something is to nail down its exact location. The point of a pin is very small and fine. Similarly, when you pinpoint something, you have narrowed down its location to the smallest possibility: you've found out exactly where it is. The government is constantly trying to pinpoint the location of terrorists, just as police try to pinpoint the location of criminals. Dogs can pinpoint many things through smell. It's often hard to pinpoint which car is producing an annoying car alarm. When you pinpoint something, you've found it.
Vocabulary lists containing pinpoint
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Persisting, Fielder asks Christian to pinpoint a turning point in his daughter’s life.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
"She just does a survey with her nose, essentially, she can pinpoint exactly where it is, so it's much easier," she said.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
But to pinpoint his net worth at a specific point in time, MarketWatch used the 1901 buyout of Carnegie Steel to J.P Morgan as a benchmark for his peak wealth.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
The air board started working with Carbon Mapper last spring to pinpoint methane emissions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Hazel, now that we’re in Rome, do you think you can pinpoint Nico’s location?”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Three decades after predicting the Asian crisis of 1997, one strategist pinpoints similarities between the financial contagion that spread across Asian economies then and the current AI investment boom that he thinks is a bubble.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
They combined single-cell sequencing, which identifies which receptors each neuron expresses, with spatial transcriptomics, which pinpoints where those neurons are located.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 30, 2026
The report pinpoints the role both nature reserves and sites of special scientific interest play in ensuring plants and animals survive.
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
To repeat, possible Japanese intervention would reverse the flow of liquidity into global markets that Edwards pinpoints.
From Barron's ● Nov. 22, 2025
More telling, the stone betrayed no delicate cracks, no pinpoints, not a single inclusion.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
The Journal pinpointed the loans by using company names Group 1001 disclosed as affiliates and uncovering dozens more by linking signatories on Delaware corporate registration records to organizations that have worked with Walter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
He was initially tested for Lyme, and it wasn’t until a monthslong antibody study that the Bourbon virus—so far found in only a handful of cases nationwide—was finally pinpointed as the culprit.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Authorities said they hadn’t yet pinpointed a cause for the Dove fire, which burned in the hills southwest of Sonora — a town outside of Yosemite National Park in southern Tuolumne County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Though he professed to not know the mainland scene "very well", he pinpointed animation and small-scale productions as bright spots.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Having pinpointed the location of gender-carrying genes to a single chromosome, Stevens proposed that all genes might be carried on chromosomes.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Forecast models can often identify the risk of thunderstorms across a wider area, but pinpointing precisely where and when an individual storm will strike is very hard.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
“The lab allowed Johnson and Skenes to analyze every aspect of his delivery in three dimensions, pinpointing inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement,” Mr. Friedman writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
By pinpointing hydrogen radicals as a dominant force, scientists now have a clearer picture of the chemistry involved.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 16, 2026
FactSet is pinpointing $59.5 billion, at the midpoint of that range.
From Barron's ● Apr. 2, 2026
One later event appears to offer some hope in pinpointing the location of the Library.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
