eye doctor

noun

1. an ophthalmologist.
2. an optometrist.

Word History and Origins

Origin of eye doctor¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Synonym Study

The term eye doctor refers generally to an ophthalmologist, but is also used informally (and imprecisely) in referring to an optometrist. An ophthalmologist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the eye. Ophthalmologists may prescribe and fit eyeglasses and contact lenses and also treat eye diseases with drugs and surgery. An optometrist is not a physician. Optometrists are professionally licensed to test a person for vision defects, prescribe and fit glasses and contact lenses, and prescribe therapeutic exercises, but they do not perform surgery and in most U.S. states may not prescribe drugs. An optician is licensed to make, sell, and fit glasses and, in most U.S. states, contact lenses prescribed by an ophthalmologist or optometrist. The term oculist, which formerly referred to an ophthalmologist, is no longer used.

Example Sentences

In a survey by the American Optometric Association, 83 percent of eye doctors said they noticed an increase in vision problems related to screen time during the pandemic.

From Outside Online

This time last year, 1-800 Contacts was among a small pool of “winners” — think home fitness brands like Peloton and virtual classes like Masterclass — early on in the pandemic as people were turning to the company for eye care as eye doctors closed.

From Digiday

If you’re going to an optician, who fills prescriptions from eye doctors but doesn’t do exams, masks should also be required there, and the store should limit the number of people allowed inside.

From Washington Post

With cyclopentolate eye drops, the stuff your eye doctor uses to dilate pupils.

From Washington Post

He constructed the first ophthalmoscope, which is a device that eye doctors use to look at the inside of the eye, but struggled with finding the proper amount of targeted light to use.

From Popular-Science

The same would be true of his dentist, his eye doctor, and his internist.

From The Daily Beast

I remember I went into an eye doctor’s office and the woman there said, ‘Heidi Hummel!

From The Daily Beast

There was one old fellow, an eye doctor, in Kabul, whom I used to notice on my way to the hospital.

From Project Gutenberg

He almost forgot he would not see Germany, unless the eye-doctor were a miracle-monger indeed.

From Project Gutenberg

If it hadn't been for what the eye doctor told her she wouldn't have telegraphed to me what she did.

From Project Gutenberg

The great eye-doctor was angry that it had not been attended to before.

From Project Gutenberg

She then married an eye-doctor, and lived with a brooding severity in his company, and that of her only child.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ophthalmologist
• optometrist