range light

noun

1

: either of two or more lights on shore placed to guide a ship by keeping it in line (as through a channel)

2

a

range lights plural : two white lights in the same vertical plane as the keel with one at least fifteen feet higher than and horizontally distant from the other that may be carried by a steamer under way to indicate her course

b

: the after of these two lights

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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