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PlainSpell

blinker

blink·er/ˈblɪŋkəɹ/noun, verb

blinker is a noun meaning “Anything that blinks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-L-I-N-K-E-R and has 2 syllables (blink·er), and it appears about once in every 4 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of blinker is blinkers.

What does blinker mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Anything that blinks.

    She was a frequent blinker, always on the verge of tears.

  2. 2

    AustraliainformalThe turn signal of an automobile.

  3. 3

    A shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side.

  4. 4

    Whatever obstructs sight or discernment.

  5. 5

    rareThe eyelid.

  6. 6

    slangA black eye.

  7. 7

    In Conway's Game of Life, an arrangement of three cells in a row that switches between horizontal and vertical orientations in each generation.

  8. 8

    slangA situation where the light of a dab pen or vape starts blinking, which happens when the user takes an extremely long hit.

    a double blinker (hitting blinkers on two pens simultaneously)

verb

  1. 1

    To put blinkers on.

    The farmer stopped to blinker his horse before riding into an area of heavy traffic.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce blinker?

  • UK /ˈblɪŋkə/
  • US /ˈblɪŋkəɹ/

Blinker has 2 syllables, split blink·er in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-blinker.wav, Teker_"Blinker".ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of blinker

  • blinkers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • blinkering participle, present
  • blinkered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is blinker?

Blinker appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 62,894th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Blinker in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchœillère (eye shield), paupière (eyelid)
GermanScheuklappe (eye shield)
Portugueseantolho, pala (eye shield), pálpebra (eyelid)
Spanishanteojeras, gríngolas (eye shield), párpado, pálpebra (eyelid)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does blinker come from?

From blink + -er.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).