Alarms

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A system of devices designed to alert individuals to danger or emergencies can both serve to warn of impending threats and draw attention to specific events or situations
2. Devices intended to notify or signal hazardous conditions can also function to provoke immediate responses from those nearby and inform about specific occurrences or issues
3. A collection of notifications or mechanisms aimed at indicating risks or emergencies can both alert individuals to potential dangers and provide awareness of particular situations that may require action

Etymology: "Alarms" is the plural of "alarm," and the noun's story begins with a battle cry. In Old Italian, "all'arme!" meant "to arms!", a call summoning soldiers to take up their weapons. The phrase passed into Middle French as "alarme," and English borrowed it from there in the Middle Ages, when it still carried the sense of a sudden summons to fight. The cry was built from the Latin "arma," meaning "arms" or "weapons," which also gave English words like "armour" and "army" through other routes. Over time the word lost its battlefield urgency and came to mean any signal that warns of danger, from a bell that rings to rouse a town to the electronic devices that now sound in homes and cars.

Synonyms: warnings, alerts, signals, indicators, cautions

Antonyms: calm, peace, reassurance, comfort, security