Cite vs site vs sight
Cite is a verb meaning to name where your facts came from, or to mention something as a reason. Site is a place or a website, and sight is the power to see or something you see. All three sound the same.
Cite goes with citation, sight has the -ight of light, and a site is where something sits.
cite verb
To name where your facts, words, or ideas came from, or to mention something as a reason.
- Always cite your sources at the end of the essay.
- The company cited rising costs as the reason for the price increase.
site noun
A place chosen or used for something, such as a building, or a website on the internet.
- Workers must wear hard hats on the building site.
- I ordered the shoes from a shopping site.
sight noun
The power to see with your eyes, or something that you see.
- My grandmother's sight is getting worse, so she reads with a magnifying glass.
- The sunset over the lake was a beautiful sight.
Watch out
- Cite can also mean to officially order someone to come to court. In American English, police cite a driver when they give a ticket. In this meaning it is always cite.Police in many US cities cite drivers who run red lights.
- Sight can be a verb that means to see something, often after looking for it. Spotting something is sighting it, not citing it.Researchers sighted the comet just before dawn.
- Site can be a verb too. To site a building means to choose where to put it.Planners chose to site the new hospital near the highway.
Test yourself
In your report, please blank the books you used.
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cite. Naming where your facts came from is to cite them.
The blank for the new stadium is next to the river.
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site. It is a place chosen for a building.
The mountains at sunrise were an amazing blank.
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sight. Something you see is a sight.
Visit our blank to order online.
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site. A website is a site.