Blind

How to spell blind

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blind

What does blind mean?

1. adjectiveUnable to see, whether literally or in the sense of failing to notice something.
2. nounA screen or covering for a window that can be pulled down or across to block light.
3. verbTo deprive someone of sight, or to overwhelm their judgement so they cannot think clearly.

Blind in a sentence

• adjective

  The charity trains guide dogs for people who are blind.

• noun

  She lowered the blind to keep the afternoon sun off her desk.

• verb

  Oncoming headlights can briefly blind a driver at night.

• adjective

  The manager seemed blind to the obvious problems on the team.

• noun

  The new office had a roller blind on every window.

• verb

  Do not let greed blind you to the risks of the deal.

Where does blind come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Blind comes straight from Old English 'blind', meaning 'sightless' or 'dark', and it has close cousins across the Germanic family, including Dutch 'blind', German 'blind' and Old Norse 'blindr'. Scholars trace these back to a Proto-Germanic root 'blendaz', which may be linked to a wider idea of becoming cloudy, dim or mixed up rather than purely the loss of sight, which is why early uses could shade into 'obscure' or 'dark'. From the literal sense of lacking vision, English steadily grew the figurative senses we still use, such as being blind to a fault or making a blind guess. The window covering called a 'blind' is the same word, named because it blocks the view and shuts out light. The spelling is mercifully phonetic for once, since the trap most people fear, a silent letter, simply is not there.

How the word is built

• blind (whole Old English root meaning 'sightless'); no prefix or suffix in the base form