Viewpoint

How to spell viewpoint

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce viewpoint

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does viewpoint mean?

1. nounA particular way of thinking about or judging a matter; an opinion or perspective.
2. nounA place or position from which something can be seen clearly.

Viewpoint in a sentence

• The report presents the issue from the customer's viewpoint.

• The hilltop viewpoint gave us a clear sight of the whole valley.

• From a financial viewpoint, the merger makes good sense.

• Photographers gathered at the cliff viewpoint to capture the sunrise.

Where does viewpoint come from?

Language of origin: French

Viewpoint is a transparent English compound, joining 'view' and 'point', and it dates from the early to middle 1800s. The first element, 'view', came into Middle English from the Anglo-French 'vewe' or 'veue', a noun built on the Old French verb 'veoir' meaning 'to see', which itself traces back to the Latin 'videre', 'to see'. The second element, 'point', also arrived through Old French from the Latin 'punctum', literally 'a pricked spot' or 'small mark', from 'pungere' meaning 'to prick'. Stitched together, the word first described a literal physical position from which something can be seen, and it quickly broadened to mean a mental position or attitude, mirroring the older French phrase 'point de vue'. Because both halves are everyday words spelled exactly as you would expect, the only spelling habit to keep is writing it as one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• view (to see)
• point (place or position)