Sight

How to spell sight

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sight

What does sight mean?

1. nounThe faculty of seeing, or something that is seen or worth looking at.
2. verbTo suddenly see or catch a glimpse of something, especially after watching for it.

Sight in a sentence

• noun

  Years of reading in dim light slowly weakened his sight.

• verb

  The crew hoped to sight land before nightfall.

• noun

  The snow-covered valley was a beautiful sight from the train window.

• verb

  Birdwatchers gathered early to sight the rare heron.

Where does sight come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from Old English gesiht or gesihth, meaning 'the faculty of seeing' or 'a thing seen', and it grew directly out of the verb seon, 'to see'. That verb traces back to Proto-Germanic roots, which is why sight has close cousins across the Germanic languages, such as the Dutch zicht and German Sicht. The buried 'gh' in the spelling is a ghost of an old throaty consonant that English once pronounced but later silenced, the same silent cluster that turns up in light, night and might. Over the centuries the word broadened from the bare power of vision to mean a view, a glimpse, and finally a remarkable thing worth looking at, as in the sights of a city. It is the silent 'gh' and the trio of sound-alikes sight, site and cite that make this such an easy word to mis-spell.

How the word is built

• sigh- (from Old English seon: to see)
• -t (noun-forming ending)

Words that sound like sight

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• cite: To quote or refer to a source, authority, or example as evidence or justification.
• site: A particular place or piece of ground where something is located, built, or happens.