distress call

1. 1.

   an internationally recognized signal sent out by a ship or plane indicating that help is needed

   Synonymsdistress signal

   Broadersignal

   NarrowerSOSMayday

Questions about distress call

What does distress call mean?

distress call means "an internationally recognized signal sent out by a ship or plane indicating that help is needed".

What is another word for distress call?

Close synonyms include distress signal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is distress call a common word?

distress call is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.