eyesight
Americannoun
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the power or faculty of seeing.
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the act or fact of seeing.
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the range of the eye.
to come within eyesight.
noun
Etymology
Origin of eyesight
Middle English word dating back to 1150–1200; see origin at eye, sight
Explanation
Your eyesight is your vision, or ability to see. If your eyesight isn't perfect, you can correct it using glasses or contact lenses. Most (but not all) animals have eyesight, or the ability to perceive things using eyes. The exceptions are a few nocturnal or underground animals, and those whose eyes or nervous systems are damaged. Eyesight is an amazing sense, giving the average person the ability to distinguish between millions of colors and focus on more than 50 objects per second. The word eyesight was used by 1200, making it about a century older than the word vision.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Published in Nature Communications, the findings suggest that a DNA repair mechanism may allow Greenland sharks to preserve their eyesight for centuries without showing signs of retinal degeneration.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
Balance naturally deteriorates as our eyesight, sense of touch, strength and vestibular systems decline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The 73-year-old's lawyers have said he's suffering from various health conditions, including poor eyesight, and has been unable to access specialist medical care.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
On six separate occasions on that March afternoon, Bucknor had his calls mercilessly reversed by a faceless computer unaffected by bias, poor judgment or the fallibility of human eyesight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Another student said his teacher had deliberately ruined his students’ eyesight by making them read a lot, so they could not join the Liberation Army.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
