A wether is a castrated male sheep or goat. A bellwether was originally a wether who led a flock of other sheep; a bell was placed around his neck to help locate the animals.
Source: tatoeba (8658032)
Bellwether
//ˈbɛlwɛðə//
Synonyms for "bellwether" (78 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (16)
Strong matches (23)
Related words (39)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
2 entriesRelated terms
2 entriescapable of
1 entriesderived
2 entriesderived from
2 entriesis a
2 entriesrelated to
11 entriesTranslations
47 translations across 17 languages.
Albanian
4 entries- ballëtór /ballëtár noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- kallaúz noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- përçór noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- rrúgës noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Catalan
1 entries- esqueller noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Czech
4 entries- barometr noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- indikátor noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- ovce vedoucí stádo noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- předzvěst noun (anything that indicates future trends)
Dutch
3 entries- belhamel noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- trendsetter noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- trendsetter noun (a stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition)
Finnish
2 entries- ennusmerkki noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- kellokas noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
French
1 entries- menon noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
German
4 entries- Indikator noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- Indikator noun (a stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition)
- Leithammel noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- Trendbarometer noun (anything that indicates future trends)
Hebrew
1 entries- משכוכית noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Japanese
4 entries- しるし noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- 兆し noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- 兆候 noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- 前触れ noun (anything that indicates future trends)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- bjellesau noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Polish
3 entries- owca-przodownica noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- wskaźnik noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- wskaźnik noun (a stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition)
Portuguese
2 entries- barômetro noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- indicador noun (anything that indicates future trends)
Serbo-Croatian
1 entries- ovan predvodnik noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Sicilian
1 entries- crastu campanaru noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Slovak
3 entries- barometer noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- indikátor noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- ukazovateľ noun (anything that indicates future trends)
Spanish
3 entries- barómetro noun (anything that indicates future trends)
- barómetro noun (a stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition)
- manso noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Swedish
3 entries- ledargestalt noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- rättesnöre noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
- skällgumse noun (the leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck)
Sample sentences
10 total sentences available.
Although the male goat kids are often culled because they will never produce milk, they are sometimes castrated instead and allowed to remain in the herd as a "wether". With a bell around its neck, such a "bellwether" is usually the leader for the rest of the herd.
Source: tatoeba (10614282)
Several old ladies forthwith proclaimed their intention of following him; but, as one or two of them were deaf, and another had been threatened with an attack of that mild, but obstinate complaint, dementia senilis, many thought it was not so much the force of his arguments as a kind of tendency to jump as the bellwether jumps, well known in flocks not included in the Christian fold.
Source: wiktionary
Mortgage delinquencies often act as a bellwether for a forthcoming recession.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 10 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.