Optical

How to spell optical

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce optical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does optical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to sight, vision, or the behaviour of light and lenses.

Optical in a sentence

• The camera uses an optical zoom rather than a digital one.

• The broadband connection runs through an optical fibre cable.

Where does optical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek optikos, meaning 'of or relating to sight', which itself was built on optos, 'seen' or 'visible', and ultimately the verb root meaning 'to see'. The Greek term passed into Latin as opticus and then into French as optique before settling into English in the early 1600s. From the start it described anything connected with the eye and with vision, and as the science of lenses and light matured the word came to cover spectacles, telescopes, microscopes, and later fibre and laser technology. The same Greek seeing-root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'optician', 'optometry', and even 'autopsy', literally a 'seeing for oneself'. The spelling is reassuringly regular: the trap, if any, is remembering the single 't' rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• opt- (from Greek optos: seen, visible)
• -ic (relating to)
• -al (adjective suffix)