sight
Pluralsights (some meanings)
Often confused with cite and site
Pluralsights (some meanings)
Formssights, sighting, sighted
- 1The act of seeing something on a particular occasion; the moment of looking at it or taking it in with the eyes.
The sight of the approaching storm sent everyone indoors.
She nearly fainted at the sight of the wreckage on the highway.
UsageCommon phrases: at the sight of, catch sight of, out of sight. Not the same word as site, a place.
Similarglimpse
- 2Something worth seeing; a spectacle, whether impressive or shocking.
Tourists crowd the harbor to see one of the city's famous sights.
With his torn coat and muddy boots, he was quite a sight at the door.
UsageTourists see the sights; someone who looks a sight looks odd or a mess, while quite a sight can be good or bad.
Similarattraction, landmark, spectacle, marvel, fright
Note
The older singular could be wholly admiring. Spenser wrote in 1596 that “They never saw a sight so fair,” and the King James Bible calls the unburnt bush “this great sight.”
- 3The ability to perceive things by means of the eyes; the faculty of vision.
Her sight had weakened with age, so she needed brighter lighting to read.
The surgery restored sight to patients who had been blind for years.
UsageCommon in lose your sight, regain your sight, and poor sight; eyesight means the same.
Oppositeblindness
Note
As the faculty of vision it stays singular: you lose your sight, and an old reader's sight fades. Shakespeare sets “Thy sight is young” against eyes that “begin to dazzle,” and Milton's Samson mourns “loss of sight.”
- 4Anything that is perceived by the eyes; a thing that is seen.
The first sight to greet travelers was the old stone bridge.
A row of parked trucks was the first sight that greeted us as we came around the bend.
UsageUsually with an adjective: a strange sight, a welcome sight, the first sight to greet you.
Note
One of the word's first meanings: Old English siht, formed from the verb see, already meant "something seen". When the thing seen is worth a journey, English reaches for the spectacle sense instead, as in the sights of Rome.
- 5To catch sight of something; to perceive it visually, especially after searching or watching.
Researchers sighted the comet just before dawn.
Climbers often sight eagles circling above the higher peaks.
UsageOften passive, as in a bear was sighted near town; the noun is a sighting.
- 6A device or small opening on a weapon or instrument that is looked through or along to aim or to find a direction.
She adjusted the sight before taking the long shot.
Modern rifles often come fitted with electronic sights.
UsageThe idiom set your sights on something means aim to get it; in your sights means targeted.
Note
It is often plural because the device usually has two parts: a front post and a rear notch or aperture, which the shooter lines up with the target. Two verbs grow from it, one for fitting or adjusting sights and one for aiming through them. Electronic sights and scopes keep the name even without separate front and rear pieces to line up.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Typical iron sights have front and rear components, commonly a front post and a rear notch or aperture, aligned with the target. en.wikipedia.org
- Sight has verb senses meaning to fit or adjust sights and to aim using them. en.wiktionary.org
- Optical sights still align an aiming mark with the target; they dispense with aligning separate front and rear sights. aimpoint.us
- 7A person's mental view, opinion, or estimation of something.
She believed she had done nothing wrong in the sight of God, whatever her neighbors said.
All people stand equal in the sight of the law.
UsageMostly in the sight of God or the law, or in God's sight; for everyday opinion, in someone's view is lighter.
Similarview, estimation, opinion
Note
The religious phrase is at home in the King James Bible of 1611 ("abomination in the sight of God") and in William Wake's commentary on the Church Catechism, and it still carries a solemn weight.
Less common meanings
- 8A great amount or degree, frequently used before a comparative to intensify it.
The roads are a sight worse since the storm washed out the bridge.
He plays a sight better than he did a year ago.
UsageMostly before a comparative: a sight better, a darn sight better. In formal writing use far or a great deal.
Note
It works as an intensifier more than as a quantity: a sight better, a darn sight better, a sight worse. It can still name an amount, as in a sight of money. D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913) gives it to broad regional speech: “It wor a sight afore that!”
- 9To look through or along the sight of a weapon or other instrument to aim at something or check its direction, height, or level.
Surveyors sight through a leveling instrument to check that a new road keeps an even grade.
He paused to sight along the rifle before squeezing the trigger.
UsageUsually sight along or down a barrel, or sight through a scope; you can also sight the target itself.
Similaraim
- 10To fit a weapon with sights, or to adjust the sights so that the weapon aims true.
The armorer sighted each carbine to a hundred yards.
Competitors sight their rifles carefully before the match begins.
UsageThe object is the weapon or optic: sight a rifle, sight in a rifle or scope; the range takes to or at (sighted to a hundred yards).
- 11The organ of vision; the eye itself.
Why cloude they not their ſights perpetually,
c. 1607, William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?]Similareye
Note
This use has died out: the word once named the eye itself, and its plural could mean eyes. A line in the play Pericles asks "Why cloud they not their sights perpetually," and the sights there are eyes. Read it that way in older texts. In modern writing, sights means places worth seeing or a weapon's aiming device, and using it for eyes will be misread.
- 12The portion of a picture or canvas that remains visible within the frame or margin; in a frame, the open space or opening.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Old English had "siht, sihþ" (something seen; vision), which became Middle English "siȝht." Behind it lies Proto-West Germanic "*sihti," basically "see" plus "-t." Its relatives include Dutch "zicht," German "Sicht," Danish "sigte," and Swedish "sikte."