noun A point or place where a check is performed, especially a point along a road or on a frontier where travellers are stopped for inspection.
The travellers were stopped at the checkpoint.
noun A situation, often represented by a point in time, at which the state of a database system is known to be valid, and to which it can be returned in the event of a crisis by using a combination of backups and logs; the data stored at this event.
After the crash, we rolled back the database to the last checkpoint.
noun A predetermined point in a map, level or scenario that the player may resume from if they die or restart.
You can't finish the race if you haven't passed all of the checkpoints on the track.
noun A biological control mechanism ensuring correct progression through the cell cycle.