eye
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: ī
ipa: /aɪ/
homophone: ay
homophone: aye
homophone: I
rhymes: -aɪ
Forms: form: eyes
form: eyen
Etymology: From Middle English eye, yë, eyghe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots ee, eh (“eye”), North Frisian Oog, uug (“eye”), Saterland Frisian Oge, Ooge (“eye”), West Frisian each (“eye”), Alemannic German, Bavarian Aug (“eye”), Central Franconian Au, Auch, Ooch (“eye”), Dutch oog (“eye”), German Aug, Auge (“eye”), Low German Auge, Oog (“eye”), Luxembourgish A (“eye”), Vilamovian aojg, aug, oüg (“eye”), Yiddish אויג (oyg, “eye”), Danish øje (“eye”), Elfdalian oga (“eye”), Faroese eyga (“eye”), Icelandic auga (“eye”), Norwegian Bokmål øye (“eye”), Norwegian Nynorsk aua, aue, auga, auge (“eye”), Scanian yva (“eye”), Swedish öga (“eye”), Crimean Gothic oeghene (“eyes”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉 (augō, “eye”).
Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian aki̇̀s, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌 (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.
The archaic plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēaġan, nominative and accusative plural of ēaġe (“eye”).
Senses: examples: text: Bright lights really hurt my eyes.
text: To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]
ref: 1605, The Trial of Chivalry:
text: Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]
ref: 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 361:
text: It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.
ref: 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 188:
text: She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter I, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: [H]is eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XVII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages.
ref: 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 07 Sep 2013:
glosses: An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
examples: text: The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.
glosses: The visual sense.
examples: text: Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.
text: Natalie’s brown eyes looked into Jim’s blue eyes, and the girl and boy flirted.
glosses: The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
examples: text: That dress caught her eye.
text: In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: Attention, notice.
examples: text: He has an eye for talent.
text: Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: perceptiveness
glosses: The ability to notice what others might miss.
examples: text: She was giving him the eye at the bar.
text: When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.
glosses: A meaningful look or stare.
examples: text: Far more annoying were the letters from parents of missing daughters and the private detectives who had begun showing up at his door. Independently of each other, the Cigrand and Conner families had hired “eyes” to search for their missing daughters.
ref: 2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Random House, →ISBN, page 199:
glosses: Ellipsis of private eye.
glosses: A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
examples: text: [H]e struck the Duffer a sharp blow on the back of the head with the eye of the axe, and left him stunned and senseless on the earth[.]
ref: 1856 October 18, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, N.S.W., page 6, column 1:
glosses: The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
glosses: A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
coordinate_terms: boss
ear
glosses: A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a hook, pin, rope, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
glosses: A burner on a kitchen stove.
glosses: The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
glosses: A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
glosses: The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
glosses: A reproductive bud in a potato.
glosses: The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
examples: text: the very eye of that proverb
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:
text: Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
ref: 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
glosses: That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
examples: text: Red vvith an Eye of Blevv, makes a Purple; and by theſe ſimple Compoſitions again Compounded among themſelves, the Skilful Painter can produce vvhat kind of Colour he pleaſes, and a great many more than vve have yet Names for.
ref: 1664, Robert Boyle, “Experiment XII”, in Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. […], London: […] Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, part III (Containing Promiscuous Experiments about Colours), page 220:
glosses: A shade of colour; a tinge.
glosses: One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
topics: architecture
glosses: The circle in the centre of a volute.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The foremost part of a ship's bows; the hawseholes.
examples: text: The “e” was a bit over-inked, with a blacked-out eye.
ref: 2022, Hernan Diaz, Trust, Picador (2023):
topics: media
publishing
typography
glosses: The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
qualifier: go
glosses: An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
examples: text: This victory will make us great in the eyes of the world.
glosses: Opinion, view.
topics: business
mining
glosses: Synonym of pit-eye.
synonyms: word: pit-eye
Synonyms: word: eye
word: eyeball
word: glim
word: globe
word: lurk
word: mince pie
word: ogle
word: optic
word: orb
word: peeper
word: silm
Hypernyms: word: body part
word: organ
Hyponyms: word: ocellus
word: oculus
Meronyms: word: cone
word: retina
word: cornea
word: iris
word: lens
word: pupil
word: sclera
word: rod
Derived terms: adze-eye hammer
after-eye
all eyes
all my eye
all my eye and Betty Martin
all-seeing eye
almond eye
an eye for an eye
an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
angel eye
apple of someone's eye
apple of the eye
as far as the eye can see
as far as the eye could see
a sheet in the wind's eye
bad eye
bag around one's eye
bag around the eye
bag below one's eye
bag below the eye
bag beneath one's eye
bag beneath the eye
bag under one's eye
bag under the eye
bare-eye
barreleye
bat an eye
bat of an eye
beady eye
beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
beauty is in the eye of the beholder
believe one's eyes
better than a poke in the eye
better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick
better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick
bigeye
big eye
birdeye
bird's-eye
bird's eye chili
bird's-eye maple
bird's-eye view
blackeye
black eye
blear eye
blink of an eye
blood in one's eye
blue-eye
blue eye cod
browneye
brown eye
bug eye
bullock's eye
bull's eye
bullseye
bull's-eye
bung eye
by eye
by the eye
calyx eye
camel through the eye of a needle
catch someone's eye
catch the eye
cat-eye
cat eye syndrome
cat's-eye
cat's eye
chi-by-eye
close one eye
cockeye
cock eye
cock-eye
collie eye anomaly
compound eye
corner of the eye
cow-eyed
crab's eye
cross-eye
damn my eyes
dead-eye
deadeye
dead-eye Dick
diddley-eye
doll's eye
doll's eye sign
donkey's eye
dragon's eye
dry eye
dry eye syndrome
duck's eye
eagle eye
easy on the eye
eff why eye
electric eye
Elliott eye
enough to put in one's eye
entry point for the eye
every shut eye isn't asleep
evil eye
evil-eye
eye agate
eye animalcule
eye-apple
eyebag
eye bag
eye-ball
eyeball
eye bank
eyebar
eyebath
eyebeam
eye black
eye bleach
eyeblink
eye bolt
eyebolt
eye booger
eyeborg
eye bounce
eyebright
eye brow
eyebrow
eyebrow pencil
eye candy
eyecap
eyecare
eyecatcher
eye-catcher
eye-catching
eye-catchingly
eye chart
eye-clean
eye color
eye colour
eye contact
eyecup
-eyed
eye dialect
eye doctor
eye-drop
eyedrop
eye drop
eyedropper
eye-drops
eye examination
eye fillet
eye-filling
eyeflap
eye fly
eye for an eye
eye for eye
eye fuck
eyefuck
eye-fuck
eyeful
eyegasm
eye-gate
eyegaze
eyegear
eyeglance
eyeglass
eye-glassed
eyeglasses
eyeglobe
eye-gougingly
eyeground
eye gunk
eye-hand coordination
eye hoe
eyehole
eye hook
eyehook
eye in the sky
eye jammy
eye job
eye-lash
eye lash
eyelash
eye lens
eyeless
eyelet
eye level
eyelid
eye lift
eyelift
eyelike
eyeline
eyelined
eyeliner
eye-lock
eye lock
eyelock
eyely
eyemark
eyemask
eye MD
eye M.D.
eye-minded
eye-mindedness
eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
eye music
eye of day
eye of round
eye of the beholder
eye of the storm
eye opener
eye-opener
eye-opening
eyepaint
eye patch
eye pattern
eye pencil
eyephone
eye-piece
eyepiece
eye-pit
eye plate
eyepoint
eye-popper
eye-popping
eye-poppingly
eye power
eye-Q
Eye-Q
eyer
eye-rape
eyereach
eye rhyme
eyering
eye-ringed flatbill
eye-roll
eye roll
eye-rolling
eyesalve
eye screw
eyes down
eye-searing
eye-servant
eyeservant
eye-server
eye service
eye-service
eyeservice
eye-sex
eye sex
eyeshade
eye-shade
eyeshadow
eye shadow
eyeshape
eyeshield
eyeshine
eyeshot
eyesies
eye sight
eyesight
eyes in the boat
eyeslit
eye socket
eye-socket
eyesome
eyes on the prize
eyesore
eye splice
eyesplice
eyespot
eyestalk
eyestone
eye-strain
eyestrain
eyestreak
eye-string
eyestring
eyestripe
eye-stripe
eye-sweet
eye test
eye to eye
eye-to-eye
eye-tooth
eye tooth
eyetooth
eyetracker
eye tracking
eyetracks
eye up
eyewall
eyeward
eyewards
eye wash
eyewash
eyewater
eye-watering
eye-wateringly
eyewear
eyewink
eye-winker
eyewinker
eyewire
eye-witness
eyewitness
eye witness
eye-word
eyeworm
eye-worthy
eyeworthy
feast one's eyes
fire-eye
fisheye
fish-eye
fish eye
fish-eye lens
Flemish eye
for your eyes only
four-eye principle
fox eye
frog-eye salad
frog's-eye view
gardener's eye
get one's eye in
give an eye-tooth
give one's eye-teeth
give someone the eye
give the eye
glad-eye
glass blue-eye
glass eye
glasseye
glint in the milkman's eye
God's eye
goggle-eye
goldeneye
goldeye
googly eye
goo-goo eyes
gooseberry eye
greeneye
green-eyed monster
green in one's eye
half an eye
half-eye
hand-eye
hand-eye coordination
have an eye for
have eyes for
have one's eye on
have one's eye out
hawk-eye
Hawk-Eye
hawk's eye
here's mud in your eye
hook and eye
in a pig's eye
inner eye
in the blink of an eye
in the eye of the wind
in the twinkling of an eye
in the wind's eye
in the wink of an eye
Ireland's Eye
I spy with my little eye
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye
Jap's eye
Jupiter's eye
keep an eye on
keep an eye open
keep an eye out
keep an eye peeled
keep an eye skinned
keep a weather eye open
keep one's eye in
keep one's eye on the ball
keep one's eyes peeled
Kelly's eye
laser eye surgery
lay one's eyes on
lazy eye
light of one's eye
loineye
magic eye
make eyes at
master eye
mind's eye
mind your eye
monoeye
moon eye
mooneye
more than meets the eye
mud-eye
muscle-eye-brain disease
my eye
naked eye
naked-eye
needle-in-the-eye syndrome
night eye
no eye see
one in the eye for
opaleye
out of the corner of one's eye
overeye
ox-eye
oxeye
ox-eye daisy
pale-faced bare-eye
pearl eye
phantom eye syndrome
pheasant's eye
pheasant's-eye
pig's eye
pink-eye
pink eye
pinkeye
pipe one's eye
pipe the eye
pit-eye
plat-eye
pleasing on the eye
pleasing to the eye
poke someone's eye out
pope's eye
Popeye
pop-eye
popeye
private eye
public eye
puppy dog eyes
put the miller's eye out
raccoon eyes
rapid eye movement
razor eye
Red Eye
red eye
red-eye flight
red-eye gravy
redeye
red-eye
rib-eye
rib eye
rib eye steak
rib-eye steak
roaming eye
roundeye
roving eye
screw eye
seeing-eye
seeing eye ball
seeing eye dog
seeing-eye dog
something green in one's eye
with half an eye
selenium eye
sheep's eye
shit eye
shuteye
shut-eye
side eye
side-eye
sight for sore eyes
silvereye
slanteye
sleep with one eye open
smize
smoky eye
sore eyes
spacecraft's-eye
stank eye
stick a needle in my eye
stink eye
stink-eye
stye
swivel eye
take one's eye off the ball
take the red eye
thimbleeye
third eye
throw an eye
thyroid eye disease
tiger eye
tiger's-eye
tiger's eye
turn a blind eye
twinkle in one's daddy's eye
twinkle in one's father's eye
twinkling of an eye
undereye
under-eye
under-eye bag
wattle-eye
wax-eye
weather eye
webeye
welder's eye
wet the other eye
wheel-eyed
white-eye
White Eyes
window
wipe someone's eye
with an eye to
with an eye towards
without batting an eye
without blinking an eye
worm's-eye view
worm's eye view
worth a Jew's eye
would give a Jew's eye
yelloweye
Related terms: word: tapetum lucidum
word: eyne
word: neen (“eyes”)