Glasses

How to spell glasses

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce glasses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does glasses mean?

1. nounA pair of lenses set in a frame and worn over the eyes to correct or aid vision.
2. nounMore than one container made of glass, used for drinking.

Glasses in a sentence

• He cleaned his glasses before reading the contract.

• She filled four glasses with water before the meal.

• She keeps a spare pair of glasses in her desk drawer.

• The wine glasses were stored on the top shelf.

Where does glasses come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word goes back to the Old English glæs, the native Germanic name for the hard, clear, brittle material made by fusing sand at high heat. That noun has relatives across the Germanic languages, including the Dutch glas and German Glas, and it is thought to connect to an older root meaning 'to shine' or 'to gleam', which fits the bright, glossy look of the material. Because lenses were ground from glass, the plural glasses came to mean a pair of vision-correcting lenses worn on the face, a sense well established by the 1600s. The same plural also serves as the ordinary count of drinking vessels made of glass. The spelling keeps the double s of the root word before the plural ending, which is the small point a writer has to remember.

How the word is built

• glass (from Old English glæs: a clear lustrous substance)
• -es (plural suffix)