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eyesight

US/ˈaɪˌsaɪt/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,011 of 15,258neutral

Eyesight is how well a person can see. Sharp, failing, or corrected by glasses.

It is a mass noun and it never takes a plural. The word belongs to opticians and to the driving test, where reading a number plate at a distance is the standard check. Good eyesight and failing eyesight are the common phrases. Vision means much the same thing but reaches further, since vision also means imagination and foresight, which eyesight never does. Sight on its own covers both.

Mrmw · Public domain

Definitions of eyesight

  1. 1nouneyesightThe ability to see, and how well you do it.B1+

    “His eyesight had been getting worse for years.”

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    eiȝesiht

  2. English, today

    eyesight

From Middle English eiȝesiht, ieȝesihte, ehsihthe, eihsihthe, eȝhesihthe, equivalent to eye + sight.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Ways of Looking

First appears in chapter 38 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

eyesight in the wild

  • Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight.

    Nocturnal animal

  • Publication ceased in 1897 due to problems with his eyesight.

    Carl Gustaf Thomson

  • In Low-Speed Mode, the vehicle is upright, and moves around at 'walking pace' at similar eyesight height to pedestrians, without taking up a large amount of space.

    Toyota i-REAL

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.