Eyesight
nounThe ability to see; the power or quality of a person's vision.
How to spell eyesight
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce eyesight
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does eyesight mean?
- nounThe ability to see; the power or quality of a person's vision.
Eyesight in a sentence
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Regular eye tests help protect your eyesight as you age.
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Poor lighting at the desk had begun to strain his eyesight.
Where does eyesight come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English compound, formed from two old Germanic words that both reach back to Old English. The first half, 'eye', descends from the Old English 'eage', the name for the organ of vision, which shares its ancestry with the German 'Auge' and the Latin 'oculus'. The second half, 'sight', comes from the Old English 'gesiht', meaning the faculty or act of seeing, built on the same root that gives us the verb 'see'. Joined together, the pairing appears in Middle English as 'eyesight' to name the power of vision itself rather than just the eye or the view. The spelling preserves both original parts intact, which is why learners must remember the silent 'gh' of 'sight' even though it is never pronounced.
How the word is built
- eye (organ of vision, from Old English eage)
- sight (faculty of seeing, from Old English gesiht)
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