eye
/ˈɑɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.02 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The visual sense.
noun
A meaningful look or stare.
noun
A meaningful look or stare.
noun
A meaningful look or stare.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: eyeball"
- "Bright lights really hurt my eyes."
- "To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy."
- "Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]"
- "Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]"
- "It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ-der. Proto-Germanic *augô Proto-West Germanic *augā Old English ēage Middle English eye English eye From Middle English e, eye, eyghe, eyȝe, eȝhe, iȝe, ye, yhe, from Old English ēage, ēge (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”). Related to ogle. Cognates Cognate with Yola iee (“eye”), Scots ee, eh (“eye”), North Frisian oog, uuch, uug (“eye”), Saterland Frisian Oge, Ooge (“eye”), West Frisian each (“eye”), Alemannic German, Bavarian Aug (“eye”), Central Franconian Au, Auch, Ooch (“eye”), Dutch oog (“eye”), German Aug, Auge (“eye”), Low German Auge, Oog (“eye”), Luxembourgish A (“eye”), Vilamovian aojg, aug, oüg (“eye”), Yiddish אויג (oyg, “eye”), Danish øje (“eye”), Elfdalian oga (“eye”), Faroese eyga (“eye”), Icelandic auga (“eye”), Norwegian Bokmål øye (“eye”), Norwegian Nynorsk aua, aue, auga, auge (“eye”), Scanian yva (“eye”), Swedish öga (“eye”), Crimean Gothic oeghene (“eyes”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉 (augō, “eye”), Estonian auk (“hole”), Finnish and Votic aukko (“hole”), Ingrian aukko, aukku (“hole”), Livonian ouk (“hole; hollow”). Other Indo-European cognates include Breton eneb (“inverse; face; honour”), Cornish enep (“face; exterior; surface”), Gaulish ops (“eye”), Old Irish enech (“face; front; honour”), Welsh wyneb (“face; front; cheek”), Latin oclus, oculus (“eye”), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “eye; face”), Albanian sy (“eye”), Latgalian and Latvian acs (“eye”), Lithuanian and Samogitian akis (“eye”), Old Prussian ackis (“eye”), Belarusian во́ка (vóka, “eye”), Bulgarian and Macedonian око́ (okó, “eye”), Carpathian Rusyn, Russian, and Ukrainian о́ко (óko, “eye”), Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene oko (“eye”), Kashubian òkò (“eye”), Lower Sorbian hoko, woko (“eye”), Polabian våťü (“eye”), Serbo-Croatian о̏ко, ȍko (“eye”), Silesian ôko (“eye”), Slovincian wôkô (“eye”), Upper Sorbian woko (“eye”), Armenian ակն (akn, “eye”), Northern Kurdish enî (“forehead”), Ashkun aċĩ (“eye”), Kamkata-viri ače, ačẽ, ači (“eye”), Prasuni ižī, ižĩ (“eye”), Tregami ac̣ĩ (“eye”), Waigali ačẽ (“eye”), Tocharian A ak (“eye”), Tocharian B ek (“eye”), Sanskrit अक्षि (akṣi, “eye”). The archaic plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēaġan, nominative and accusative plural of ēaġe (“eye”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɑɪ̯/
Usage
- American usage
- Informal
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- Obsolete
- British usage
- Colloquial
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law, Medicine.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
adze-eye hammer
after-eye
all eyes
all my eye
all my eye and Betty Martin
all-seeing eye
almond eye
an eye for an eye