marker

See also: Marker and märker

English

A digital location marker.

A permanent marker. Highlighters are sometimes considered a type of marker and sometimes distinguished.

A mile marker, recording the distance from the beginning of a road

A man firing a paintball marker.

Etymology

From mark +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)

Noun

marker (plural markers)

1. Someone or something that creates marks, particularly
   1. A felt-tipped pen, a marker pen.

      Don't use the permanent marker on the whiteboard.

   2. A scorekeeper, especially one who tallies billiard scores.
   3. (paintball) A device that fires a paintball.
2. Someone or something used to mark a position or amount, particularly
   • 1990 April 7, Deborah Schwartz, “Gay Group Hires Straight Man”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     Board member Phillip Carlson […] said he considers [the election of] Brading to be a marker for the distance the gay and lesbian community has come.

   1. A real or virtual objective, something to be aimed for.
      • 2013 September 22, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

        Pellegrini insisted this was a game City had to win - this they did and with the sort of performance that put down a marker for how the Chilean wants his team to play.

   2. (US, slang) Synonym of IOU, an informal record of a debt.
   4. (linguistics) A free or bound morpheme indicating a grammatical function.
   5. (linguistics) Short for discourse marker.
   6. (biology) A gene or DNA sequence with a known location on a chromosome that can be used to identify individuals or species.
      • 2012, N Manikanda Boopathi, Genetic Mapping and Marker Assisted Selection: Basics, Practice and Benefits, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 88:

        Markers are mapped relative to one another on chromosomes and used as signposts against which to map genes of interest that are linked with marker. This process of finding the linked markers/genes is referred to as grouping.

   7. (biology, medicine) A substance used as an indicator for diagnosis or other analysis, a biomarker.
      • 2019, Justin Benson, directed by Justin Benson, Synchronic, spoken by Nurse Hall and Steve Denube (Rhonda Johnson Dents and Anthony Mackie), XYZ Films, →OCLC:

        Nurse Hall: Is there any reason we shouldn't do a full workup? / Steve Denube: Ignorance is bliss; that's about it. Hangover's worse than usual but that's probably from the drinking and recreational drug use. / Nurse Hall: We'll ignore the ganja and booger sugar markers.

   8. (military) The soldier who forms the pilot of a wheeling column or marks the direction of an alignment.
   9. A sewing machine attachment that creases the fabric to mark a line
   10. A counter, especially one used in card games or backgammon.
   11. Any of various objects that mark a place on the landscape, such as a milepost, blaze, or surveyor's cairn.

       Coordinate term: landmark

3. (UK) Someone who assigns marks on tests, examinations, etc.; a grader.
   • 2020 July 15, Mike Brown tells Paul Clifton, “Leading London's "hidden heroes"”, in Rail, page 47:

     So, in his end of term report, what marks would Brown award himself for his time at TfL?
     "8½," he replies.
     Why?
     "I'm a hard marker! […]

4. (colloquial) The ink marks or residue of a felt-tipped pen.

   Susie got marker all over the walls.

5. (figurative) A personal favor owed to someone, whether written or not.

   We may not be able to do this alone. Maybe it’s time to call in some of our markers.

6. (competition law) A formal certification that a company was the first to approach a competition authority to reveal the existence of a cartel, generally entitling it to greater leniency during the cartel's dissolution and punishment.
7. (sports) A player on defense used to mark one or more offensive players.
   • 2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     He skipped past Marc Wilson before clipping a delicious cross into the Stoke danger zone, where Cisse's sharp movement allowed him to escape marker Robert Huth and send a far-post header crashing against the crossbar. And Cabaye was waiting to pounce on the rebound with a close range header.

8. (dated) A player employed by a private club to compete against members.
   • 1903, Eustace Miles, Racquets, tennis, and squash, New York: Appleton & Co., page 39:

     The Court itself, with its rent, the wages of the Marker and the tips to the Marker, the rackets and the balls, the baths and the flannels and the washing of the flannels, do much to account for the costliness of play.

   • 1904 "Squash and Racquets" in Frederick George Aflalo ed. The sportsman's book for India p.519 (London: Horace Marshall & Son)

     Some of the native markers attain to great skill, and the brilliant success in London of " Jamsetjee " the Bombay professional affords sufficient testimony to their capabilities.

   • 1904 "A Foreign Resident" (George Washburn Smalley and Thomas Hay Sweet Escott) "Where Wit, Wealth and Empire Meet" Society in the new reign p.76 (London: T Fisher Unwin)

     Of his victories over the curate at this game he is as proud as are others of his sex and cloth, not being old maids, of their mastery of "side" at billiards, and of an occasional victory over the club marker at evens.

   • 1907 June 1, “Mr. A. F. Wilding's Tour”, in New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, No. 13453‎^[2], page 7:

     I played seven sets of doubles with Mitchell (the second best player in Ceylon) and David, the native marker.

9. (Philippines, informal, basketball, volleyball) A point, unit of scoring in a game or competition.

Derived terms

Compound words

• backmarker
• biomarker
• bookmarker
• chemomarker
• exomarker
• fluoromarker
• geomarker
• glycomarker
• immunomarker
• intermarker
• markerboard
• markerless
• multimarker
• neuromarker
• oncomarker
• osteomarker
• phosphomarker
• phylomarker
• phytomarker
• radiomarker
• seromarker
• sonomarker
• waymarker

Multiword expressions

• air marker
• china marker
• discourse marker
• dry marker
• epistemic marker
• exclamative marker
• fan marker
• genetic marker
• grave marker
• hesitation marker
• Hydro Marker
• infinitive marker
• inner marker
• lay down the marker
• locator outer marker
• magic marker / Magic Marker
• marker beacon
• marker bed
• marker gene
• marker horizon
• marker interface → marker interface pattern
• marker pen
• meal marker
• middle marker
• mile marker
• non-manual marker
• OB marker
• on-time marker
• outer marker
• permanent marker
• slap marker
• time marker
• whiteboard marker

Related terms

• man marker / man-marker

 

Translations

object used to mark location

• French: marqueur (fr) m, tetrahedron (fr)
• German: Markierung (de) f
• Hungarian: jelzés (hu), jel (hu)
• Macedonian: пока́зател m (pokázatel)
• Norman: mèrtcheux m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: markør m

  Nynorsk: markør m

• Portuguese: marco (pt) m
• Romanian: marker n
• Russian: ме́тка (ru) f (métka), указа́тель (ru) m (ukazátelʹ)
• Slovak: značka f, označenie n, marka f (colloquially), míľnik m (a mile marker)
• Spanish: venero (es) m (of a clock)

someone or something that marks (including: one who keeps account of a game played; a counter used in games; the soldier who marks the direction of an alignment; an attachment to a sewing machine for marking a line on the fabric by creasing it; a person who assesses the standard of a student in a test or examination)

• French: marqueur (fr) m
• Hungarian: jelző (hu), jelölő (hu), tábla (hu), kijelző (hu), mutató (hu)
• Norman: mèrtcheux m
• Portuguese: marcador (pt) m
• Romanian: marcator (ro) m

marker pen — see marker pen

note of debt

• Hungarian: adóslevél (hu), ígérvény (hu), kötelezvény (hu)
• Italian: nota (it) f, quota (it) f ((di debito da pagare))

a device that fires a paintball

• French: marqueur (fr) m
• Greek: μαρκαδόρος (el) m (markadóros)
• Portuguese: marcador (pt) m

a gene or DNA sequence with a known location

• Dutch: merker (nl)
• French: marqueur (fr) m
• Galician: marcador m
• Hungarian: marker (hu)
• Italian: marcatore (it) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: markør m

  Nynorsk: markør m

• Persian: نشانگر (fa) (nešângar)
• Polish: marker (pl) m
• Portuguese: marcador (pt) m
• Spanish: marcador (es) m

Verb

marker (third-person singular simple present markers, present participle markering, simple past and past participle markered)

1. To mark or write on (something) using a marker
   • 2002 July 5, Mike Sula, “Everything Must Go”, in Chicago Reader‎^[3]:

     On one page someone has markered: "Remember, you are your own best thing."

References

• “marker”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Kramer, re-mark, remark

Danish

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /markər/, [ˈmɑːɡ̊ɐ]

Noun

marker c

1. indefinite plural of mark

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /markeːˀr/, [mɑˈkʰeˀɐ̯]

Verb

marker or markér

1. imperative of markere

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

marker m

marker m or f

1. indefinite plural of mark (Etymologies 1 & 2)

Verb

marker or markér

1. imperative of markere

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

marker f

1. indefinite plural of mark (Etymology 2)

Verb

marker or markér

1. imperative of markere

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English marker.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmar.kɛr/
• Rhymes: -arkɛr
• Syllabification: mar‧ker

Noun

marker m inan

1. marker pen, sharpie
2. (biology) marker (gene or DNA sequence with a known location)
3. (paintball) device that fires a paintball

Declension

Declension of marker

	singular	plural
nominative	marker	markery
genitive	markera	markerów
dative	markerowi	markerom
accusative	marker	markery
instrumental	markerem	markerami
locative	markerze	markerach
vocative	markerze	markery

Further reading

• marker in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• marker in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English marker.

Noun

marker n (plural markere)

1. marker

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	marker	markerul		markere	markerele
genitive-dative	marker	markerului		markere	markerelor
vocative	markerule			markerelor

Swedish

Noun

marker

1. indefinite plural of mark

Anagrams

• kamrer