footprint

Plural: footprints

Noun

• a mark of a foot or shoe on a surface
  • "the police made casts of the footprints in the soft earth outside the window"
• a trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important
  • "the footprints of an earlier civilization"
• the area taken up by some object
  • "the computer had a desktop footprint of 10 by 16 inches"
• The impression of the foot in a soft substance such as sand or snow.
• Space required by a piece of equipment.
• The amount of hard drive space required for a program.
• The audit trail left by a crashed program.
• A trace left behind that gives evidence of some action having occurred.
• What a person has done before, as a profession or lifestyle, serving as a model for others.
• The surface space occupied by a structure.
• A company's geographic market presence.
• The ecological impact of a human activity, machine, etc.
• Availability of a satellite from the ground.
• A polygon representing the shape of an item.

Examples

• building footprint
• He is following in his father's footprints.
• My carbon footprint is very high.
• the footprint of a building
• The store, which is slated to open next month, increases the company's footprint in the market to 14 locations.
• This computer has a smaller footprint.

Synonyms

footmark, step, ichnogram