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.
Eyesight alone wouldn’t get the elephantnose very far in the murky rivers of western and central Africa where the nocturnal fish makes its home.
From Scientific American • Nov. 6, 2023
"The Indian beauty market is not saturated - far from it," said Devangshu Dutta, head of New Delhi-based retail consultancy firm Third Eyesight.
From Reuters • Nov. 16, 2022
Eyesight has been a source of anxiety in the family, she said; many members have impaired vision and one of Xie’s grandmothers became blind after an ocular hemorrhage.
From New York Times • Sep. 19, 2022
Eyesight is obviously important - umpires must have 20/20 vision, corrected or uncorrected.
From BBC • Jun. 27, 2017
I can just imagine the headline in the town newspaper: “Girl Loses Eyesight After Reading Recipe Competition Rules.”
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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.
