visual signal
1
3.8
- noun
- Specialized
:
señal visual
- In a performance, the director used a visual signal, like a hand gesture, to indicate when the actors should start.
Our brain is also taking in visual signals or visual cues from food.
- Our brain is also taking in visual signals or visual cues from food.
- And the, I remember the yellow smoke came out, which was the visual signal to shift.
Examples
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The flashing red light served as a clear visual signal that the crossing was unsafe.
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And the, I remember the yellow smoke came out, which was the visual signal to shift.
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Whether they, too, communicate by means of visual signals remains to be studied.
Academic text (2010) -
We can't send visual signals in this smoke.
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Our brain is also taking in visual signals or visual cues from food.
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We also investigated the role of visual signals in communication between eagle owl parents and their offspring.
Academic text (2010) -
Those results supported our hypothesis that eagle owls use their white badges as a visual signal and suggested that the badges may serve as a sexual indicator of mate quality.
Academic text (2010) -
It seems that Eurasian eagle owls call more at dusk than during the night because that's when their visual signals are the most conspicuous.
Academic text (2010) -
With the eagle owl as our model, we sought to learn whether and how nocturnal birds communicate by visual signals—as far as we know, the first scientific attempt to probe that question.
Academic text (2010) -
During the presentation, she held up a card as a visual signal to grab the audience's attention.
Synonyms
1
3.2
A light or fire used to send a message over a distance
Antonyms
How Visible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'visual' (related to sight) modifies 'signal' (a cue), so the phrase denotes a signal conveyed by visual means (lights, signs, gestures). This is a regular, cross-linguistically common compound-like pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Visual signal puts together visual (seen with the eyes) and signal (a sign that gives information). Think of a light flash or a lifeguard's hand wave that people notice, so a visual signal is 'a message you can see'.