Definition of "bellwether" []

• One that serves as a leader or as a leading indicator of future trends: "The degree to which the paper is censored is a political bellwether” ( Justine De Lacy). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In their books second chapter, What We Can Learn About Service from Scandinavia, Albrecht and Zemke turned to Sweden, which they referred to as a bellwether country because of a business approach developed there called service management."
• "If you watched ABC news wednesday evening, they showed my county, Bucks County, which they characterized as a bellwether county."
• "Perhaps Joe and I should be flattered -- after all, one definition of "bellwether" is "a person or thing that takes the lead" (that's from Random House)."