Sunglasses

How to spell sunglasses

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce sunglasses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sunglasses mean?

1. nounTinted glasses worn to protect the eyes from bright sunlight.

Sunglasses in a sentence

• She packed her sunglasses before driving into the bright afternoon glare.

• The cricketers wore polarised sunglasses to track the ball against the sky.

Where does sunglasses come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from 'sun' and 'glasses', both of which are old native words. 'Sun' descends from Old English 'sunne', a Germanic word for the star that lights the day, with relatives across the Germanic languages such as Dutch 'zon' and German 'Sonne'. 'Glasses' meaning spectacles grew out of 'glass', from Old English 'glaes', the see-through material, because early lenses were ground from glass; the plural form reflects the pair of lenses. The compound 'sunglasses', meaning tinted eyewear that shields the eyes from bright light, is a comparatively modern coinage that appeared in the early twentieth century as such eyewear became common. Because it is simply two familiar words joined without any doubling or dropped letters, the only spelling care it needs is remembering it is written solid as one word.

How the word is built

• sun (the sun)
• glasses (eyewear, from glass
• -es plural)