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bellwether

PRONUNCIATION:

(BEL-weth-uhr) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. An indicator of future trends.
2. A leader or trendsetter.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English belle (bell) + wether (castrated ram). Earliest documented use: c. 1440.

NOTES:

No weather here. A wether is a castrated male sheep, and a bellwether was the wether that led the flock while wearing a bell. The bell let the shepherd know where the flock was, and the wether was a more manageable fellow than an intact ram. Eventually the word wandered out of the pasture and into politics, business, and journalism, where bellwethers now lead trends or indicate where the herd is headed.

USAGE:

“Walmart, the supermarket bellwether for middle America, reported that transactions in the first quarter this year rose at their fastest pace since 2024.”
A Firm Mattress; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 27, 2026.

See more usage examples of bellwether in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.