How to spell signal

hear itsig·nal/'sɪgnəl/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: Any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message.

In a sentence: The traffic light gave the signal to cross the street.

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent g. Often misspelled as signel or signall.

Same family: signals, signaled, signalling, signal (noun), sign. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Signal comes from the Latin word 'signum', meaning 'mark' or 'sign'. It is closely related to the simpler word 'sign', and both share the idea of showing or indicating something.

Patterns it uses: Silent letters

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

sign · campaign · gnaw · benign · gnat · design · gnash · foreign

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