eye.
An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
Meaning & usage
An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
Bright lights really hurt my eyes.
The visual sense.
The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.
The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.
Natalie’s brown eyes looked into Jim’s blue eyes, and the girl and boy flirted.
Attention, notice.
That dress caught her eye.
The ability to notice what others might miss.
He has an eye for talent.
A meaningful look or stare. A sexually or romantically suggestive one.
She was giving him the eye at the bar.
A meaningful look or stare. An angry, annoyed, or malicious one.
When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.
A meaningful look or stare. An angry, annoyed, or malicious one. An evil one.
He sought the help of an alchemist regarding remedies to ward off the eye.
Ellipsis of private eye.
A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a hook, pin, rope, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
A burner on a kitchen stove, hob, or cooktop.
A central and focal portion of any of several things. The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
the eye of the storm
the eye of the hurricane
A central and focal portion of any of several things. The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
A central and focal portion of any of several things. The hilum of a seed or bean, or the hilum plus any rings of color that surround it; for example, the dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
A central and focal portion of any of several things. The circle in the centre of a volute.
A central and focal portion of any of several things. A central area in a portion of a carcass being butchered into cuts of meat, such as a certain muscle partly surrounded by fat (for example, a longissimus dorsi); a cut that includes a portion of it.
loin eye
rib eye
A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
A reproductive bud in a potato.
That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
A shade of colour; a tinge.
One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
The foremost part of a ship's bows; the hawseholes.
The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
Opinion, view.
This victory will make us great in the eyes of the world.
Synonym of pit-eye.
Where this word comes from
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”).
To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.
They went out and eyed the new car one last time before deciding.
To consider.
Mr. Smith is eyeing a departmental reorganization plan.
To appear; to look.
To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.
Where this word comes from
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”).
The name of the Latin script letter I/i.
A brood.
an eye of pheasants
Where this word comes from
Probably from rebracketing of a nye as an eye.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.