Meaning & use
geofence
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A virtual boundary around a real place, set up so that a phone or device triggers an action when it enters or leaves.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one geofence or several geofences.
Patterns
- set up a geofence
- a geofence around something
- inside a geofence
The app sends a reminder when you cross the geofence around the office.
Parents can draw a geofence around the school and get an alert if the child leaves it.
Our delivery system uses a geofence to mark which streets are in the service area.
verbtransitivetechnical
To create such a virtual boundary around a place, usually so a device reacts automatically.
Grammar: Takes an object: geofence an area. Often used in the passive: the site is geofenced.
Patterns
- geofence an area
- geofence something for someone
The company geofenced the warehouse so that scanners only work inside it.
They geofenced the campus to stop drones from flying over the buildings.
Once you have geofenced the zone, the app can log every entry and exit.
Word forms
| plural | geofences |
|---|---|
| third person singular | geofences |
| past tense | geofenced |
| past participle | geofenced |
| -ing form | geofencing |
Common combinations
- set up a geofence
- We set up a geofence around the parking lot to track the vans.
- cross a geofence
- The phone beeps whenever you cross a geofence.
- virtual geofence
- A virtual geofence can cover a whole neighborhood.
- geofence alert
- She got a geofence alert the moment her son arrived at school.
- geofencing technology
- Geofencing technology is now common in fitness and delivery apps.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- geofencing noun
- The practice or technology of using geofences.
- geofenced adjective
- Describing an area that has a geofence around it.
Commonly confused: geofence or fence?
geofence vs fence
A fence is a physical barrier you can see and touch; a geofence is invisible and exists only in a device's location system.
Practice
Which sentence uses "geofence" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A geofence is a digital location boundary, so an app detecting arrival at work fits. Wooden barriers are real fences, not geofences, and the other options use the word with meanings it does not have.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “geofence”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.