<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>A sharp or tapering end, as of a dagger.</li><li>A projecting part of anything: A point of land juts into the bay.</li><li>A tapering extremity: the points of the fingers.</li><li>Something having a sharp or tapering end: a pen point.</li><li>A pointed tool or instrument, as an etching needle.</li><li>A stone implement with a tapering end found in some Middle and Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures and used primarily for hunting.</li><li>A mark made with or as if with the sharp end of something: Her sharp heels left points in the carpet.</li><li>Any mark of punctuation, especially a period.</li><li>Decimal point: Numerically, “three point thirty-six” is written as 3.36, which is only slightly greater in value than three and a third.</li><li>Phonetics: a diacritic indicating a vowel or other modification of sound.</li><li>One of the embossed dots used in certain systems of writing and printing for the blind.</li><li>Something that has position but not extension, as the intersection of two lines.</li><li>A place of which the position alone is considered; spot: We're leaving for Chicago and points west.</li><li>Any definite position, as in a scale, course, etc.: the boiling point.</li><li>(In acupuncture) a particular spot on the body at which a needle may be inserted, as to relieve pain.</li><li>Navigation: any of 32 separate horizontal directions, 11° 15′ apart, as indicated on the card of a compass or gauged with reference to the heading of a vessel.</li><li>Nautical: Also called point of sailing. The bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.</li><li>A degree or stage: frankness to the point of insult.</li><li>A particular instant of time: It was at that point that I told him he'd said enough.</li><li>A critical position in a course of affairs: Morale had reached a low point.</li><li>A decisive state of circumstances: He reached the point where he could no longer pay his debts.</li><li>The important or essential thing: the point of the matter.</li><li>The salient feature of a story, epigram, joke, etc.: to miss the point.</li><li>A particular aim, end, or purpose: He carried his point.</li><li>A hint or suggestion: points on getting a job.</li><li>A single or separate article or item, as in an extended whole; a detail or particular: the fine points of a contract.</li><li>An individual part or element of something: noble points in her character.</li><li>A distinguishing mark or quality, especially one of an animal, used as a standard in stockbreeding, judging, etc.</li><li>Points, the external features of an animal, especially a horse or dog, that make up its conformation: Besides the withers, pastern, and barrel, how many points of the horse can you identify?</li><li>A single unit, as in counting.</li><li>A unit of count in the score of a game: Our team won by five points.</li><li>(In craps) the number that must be thrown to win but not including 7 or 11 on the first roll: Your point is 4.</li><li>Ice Hockey: either of two positions, to the right or left of the goal, to which an attacking defenseman is assigned, usually in the execution of a power play, to help keep the puck in the attacking zone.</li><li>Basketball: a position in the front court, usually taken by the guard in charge of setting up the team's offense.</li><li>Cricket: the position of the fielder who plays a short distance in front of and to the offside of the batsman; the fielder playing this position.</li><li>Chiefly Boxing: the end or tip (of the chin).</li><li>Hunting: the action of a hunting dog that indicates the presence and location of game by standing rigid and directing its head toward the game; the position taken by a hunting dog in pointing game.</li><li>A branch of an antler of a deer: an eight-point buck.</li><li>Sports: a cross-country run.</li><li>One of the narrow tapering spaces marked on a backgammon board.</li><li>Education: a single credit, usually corresponding to an hour's class work per week for one semester.</li><li>Electricity: Also called breaker point. Either of a pair of contacts tipped with tungsten or platinum that make or break current flow in a distributor, as in an automobile.</li><li>British: an outlet or socket.</li><li>Commerce: a unit of price quotation, as in the U.S., one dollar in stock transactions, one hundredth of a cent in cotton and coffee, or one cent in oil, grain, pork, etc.: The price of the stock went up two points today.</li><li>(Especially in motion pictures) a percentage point, usually of the gross profits, granted to someone who agrees to invest or otherwise participate in a business project: The star of the movie received a million dollar guarantee and five points.</li><li>Any of various units used to award credit, benefits, or penalties: Earn points every time you use the credit card at restaurants. You will get points on your license for certain traffic violations.</li><li>One percent of the face value of a loan, especially a mortgage loan, added on as a placement fee or a service charge and paid in advance or upon closing of the loan.</li><li>Jewelry: a unit of weight equal to 1/100 (.01) of a carat.</li><li>Military: a patrol or reconnaissance unit that goes ahead of the advance party of an advance guard, or follows the rear party of the rear guard; the stroke in bayonet drill or combat.</li><li>Printing: a unit of type measurement in the U.S. and U.K. equal to 1/72 inch, or 1/12 pica. Compare Didot point system. Also called press-point. (In a press) one of several metal prongs for perforating the sheet so that it will be in register when the reverse is printed; a unit of measure of paper or card thickness, equal to 0.001 inch.</li><li>Medicine/Medical: Also called vaccine point. (In historical use) a thin, pointed, vaccine-coated piece of bone or the like, for use in vaccinating.</li><li>Point lace: any lace made by hand.</li><li>Heraldry: one of the pendent parts of a label.</li><li>Railroads: the vertex of the angle formed at a frog by two rails; the intersection of gauge lines in a switch or frog.</li><li>British: a tapering movable rail, as in a railroad switch.</li><li>(In the game of go) any place where lines intersect or meet.</li><li>Act of pointing.</li><li>Archaic: a tagged ribbon or cord, formerly much used in dress, as for tying or fastening parts.</li><li>Obsolete: an end or conclusion.</li><li>Obsolete: a pointed weapon, as a dagger.</li><li>Obsolete: a condition, situation, or plight: to be feeling in good point.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object):</strong></p><ul><li>To direct (the finger, a weapon, the attention, etc.) at, to, or upon something: The witness pointed her finger at the defendant, and said in a firm voice, "That's him, the man who took my purse."</li><li>To indicate the presence or position of (usually followed by out): to point out an object in the sky.</li><li>To direct attention to (usually followed by out): to point out the advantages of a proposal.</li><li>To furnish with a point or points; sharpen: to point a lead pencil.</li><li>To mark with one or more points, dots, or the like.</li><li>Sculpture: to transfer measurements of depth from a clay, wax, or plaster model to (a block of stone) by means of an apparatus that drills holes to the required depth prior to carving.</li><li>To punctuate, as writing.</li><li>Phonetics: to mark (letters) with points.</li><li>To separate (figures) by dots or points (usually followed by off).</li><li>Hunting: (of a hunting dog) to indicate the presence and location of (game) by standing rigid and facing toward the game.</li><li>Masonry: to fill the joints of (brickwork, stonework, etc.) with mortar or cement treated in various ways with tools after application.</li><li>To dress the surface of (a stone) with a pointed tool.</li><li>Metalworking: to narrow the end of (a rod) for passing through the dies of a drawbench.</li><li>To narrow the end of (a tube) over the head of a pin that is gripped to pull the tube through the dies of a drawbench.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object):</strong></p><ul><li>To indicate position or direction, as with the finger: She pointed to where she wanted the sofa to go.</li><li>To direct the mind or thought in some direction; call attention to: Everything points to his guilt.</li><li>To aim: The police officer pointed at the speeding car, turned on his lights and siren, and set off in pursuit.</li><li>To have a tendency toward something: Economic conditions point to further inflation.</li><li>To have a specified direction: The sign pointed west.</li><li>To face in a particular direction, as a building.</li><li>Hunting: (of a hunting dog) to point game.</li><li>Nautical: to sail close to the wind.</li><li>(Of an abscess) to come to a head.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb Phrase:</strong></p><ul><li>To give greater or added force to: to point up the necessity for caution.</li></ul>