FOOTPRINT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does footprint mean? 

• FOOTPRINT (noun)
  The noun FOOTPRINT has 3 senses:

1. a mark of a foot or shoe on a surface

2. a trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important

3. the area taken up by some object

  Familiarity information: FOOTPRINT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOOTPRINT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mark of a foot or shoe on a surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

footmark; footprint; step

Context example:

the police made casts of the footprints in the soft earth outside the window

Hypernyms ("footprint" is a kind of...):

mark; print (a visible indication made on a surface)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "footprint"):

footprint evidence (evidence in the form of footprints)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the footprints of an earlier civilization

Hypernyms ("footprint" is a kind of...):

shadow; tincture; trace; vestige (an indication that something has been present)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The area taken up by some object

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the computer had a desktop footprint of 10 by 16 inches

Hypernyms ("footprint" is a kind of...):

area; expanse; surface area (the extent of a 2-dimensional surface enclosed within a boundary)

 Context examples 

Both noses went down to the footprints in the snow.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Nothing had been touched or taken, but there were the footprints to prove that the intrusion was an undoubted fact.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Dreaming to leave footprints on the sands of time?”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The national drought footprint expanded from about 18 percent in January to about 23 percent by the end of December.

(2016 was 2nd warmest year on record for U.S., NOAA)

In addition to the adrenal lesions, the scientific team discovered that more than one in five dolphins that died within the Deepwater Horizon oil spill footprint had a primary bacterial pneumonia.

(Deepwater Horizon oil spill contributed to high number of Gulf dolphin deaths, NOAA)

Scientists have discovered a new mechanism for determining how carbon is stored in soils, which could improve the climate resilience of crop systems and reduce their carbon footprints.

(Scientists discover new mechanism for how soils store carbon, National Science Foundation)

The signs so far are indirect, mainly its gravitational footprints, but that adds up to a compelling case nonetheless.

(The Super-Earth that Came Home for Dinner, NASA)

The chase led him across swampy ground in the bottom of the valley, and he came upon footprints in the soggy moss.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The snow had covered our late footprints; my new track was the only one to be seen; and even that began to die away (it snowed so fast) as I looked back over my shoulder.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The entire Chad Basin falls in the region where the Sahara has crept southward, and the lake is drying out. t's a very visible footprint of reduced rainfall not just locally, but across the whole region.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)