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cataract

UK/ˈkætəɹækt/US/ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
nounB2+2 meaningsRare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,632 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: cataracts

A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye that dims the sight. Like looking through a misted window that will not clear.

It is extremely common with age and it is one of the great successes of modern surgery, since replacing the lens takes about twenty minutes and restores the sight almost completely. Before that operation existed it was a leading cause of blindness worldwide, and in many places it still is. There is a quite separate and older sense, since a cataract is also a large waterfall.

Rakesh Ahuja, MD · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of cataract

  1. 1nouncataractA clouding of the eye's lens causing blurred vision.B2+

    “She is having a cataract done in the spring.”

  2. 2nounlargeA large waterfall.C2

    “The river drops in a series of cataracts.”

Where it comes from

A cataract was a floodgate. Greek katarraktēs meant rushing downwards, Latin cataracta a floodgate or a waterfall, and Middle English used it of the floodgates of heaven. The clouded eye keeps the idea of something come down across the view.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *wreh₂ǵʰ-

  2. Ancient Greek

    καταρράκτης — (noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards

  3. Latin

    cataracta — floodgate; waterfall

  4. Old French

    cataracte

  5. Middle English

    cataract

  6. English, today

    cataract

Built from

  • cateracte · Middle English — floodgate of heaven
  • καταρρᾱ́σσω · Ancient Greek — to pour down; to rush downwards

The noun is derived from cataracts, from Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”), from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (“(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρρᾱ́σσω (“to pour down; to rush downwards”) + -της. Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω is derived either:

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word