To identify or locate something very precisely, or to find the exact cause or location of something.
Compound word from 'pin' and 'point,' literally meaning the sharp point of a pin. Used metaphorically since the 1800s to describe precision location or identification, as a pin's point is incredibly small and exact.
GPS technology uses pinpointing, but humans have been pinpointing locations for millennia—from ancient star navigation to Renaissance mapmaking. It's fascinating that our word for high-tech precision comes from imagining something as small as a pin's point!
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