acoustic buoy
- noun
- /əˈkuːstɪk bɔɪ/
- Specialized
- The ship's crew relied on the acoustic buoy to guide their way through dense fog.
Examples
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At night, the sound from the acoustic buoy helped fishermen locate the harbor entrance.
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Engineers installed a new acoustic buoy near the rocky coastline for safer navigation.
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The acoustic buoy sounded loudly during the storm.
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Did you hear the acoustic buoy last night?
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At night, the sound from the acoustic buoy helped fishermen locate the harbor entrance.
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Engineers installed a new acoustic buoy near the rocky coastline for safer navigation.
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The ship's crew relied on the acoustic buoy to guide their way through dense fog.
Synonyms
A floating marker with a bell that rings when it moves to warn boats
A floating marker that makes a loud sharp sound to guide ships
A floating marker that makes a whistling sound to warn ships of danger
A floating marker with a bell that rings to guide ships
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'acoustic' (relating to sound) modifies 'buoy' (a floating navigational marker), so a buoy that produces or transmits sound is immediately inferable. This straightforward modifier+noun construction is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English word-formation, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand it.
Etymology
Acoustic buoy comes from the words acoustic, meaning 'sound', and buoy, a floating marker. It is a buoy that makes a sound so boats can 'find the way' in fog or at night, which is why it means 'a buoy with a sound device'.