bellwether.
The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck.
Meaning & usage
The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck.
Anything that indicates future trends.
Mortgage delinquencies often act as a bellwether for a forthcoming recession.
A stock whose price performance is treated as an indicator of the likely direction of a broader market, sector, or industry.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Germanic *bellǭ Proto-West Germanic *bellā Old English belle Middle English belle Proto-Indo-European *wet- Proto-Indo-European *wétrusder. Proto-Germanic *weþruz Proto-West Germanic *weþru Old English weþer Middle English wether Middle English belwether English bellwether From Middle English belwether, belleweder, equivalent to bell + wether (“castrated ram”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.