eye

Meaning

Noun

1. An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
2. The visual sense.
3. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
4. Attention, notice.
5. The ability to notice what others might miss.
6. A meaningful look or stare.
7. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of private eye.
8. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
9. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
10. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
11. 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.
12. (US) A burner on a kitchen stove.
13. The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
14. A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
15. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
16. A reproductive bud in a potato.
17. (informal) The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
18. That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
19. A shade of colour; a tinge.
20. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
21. The circle in the centre of a volute.
22. (in-plural) The foremost part of a ship's bows; the hawseholes.
23. The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
24. An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
25. (plural-normally) Opinion, view.
26. Synonym of pit-eye.

Verb

1. (transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.
3. (transitive) To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
4. (transitive) To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.

Synonyms

eyeball

sight

look

optic

eyes

👀

seed

view

oculus

hole

🕳️

attention

face

point

notice

loop

➿

etc.

eyesight

gaze

ear

👂

tongue

👅

mesh

glance

skin

look at

regard

nose

👃

centre

center

knitting stitch

vision

watch

⌚

heart

❤️

spring

pupil

opinion

glyph

remark

namely

middle

note

leer

behold

lid

consider

eye of a needle

becket

eyelid

eyelet

iris

interstice

inspect

Translations

ojo

👁️

Auge

👁️

œil

👁️

occhio

👁️

oog

👁️

olho

👁️

μάτι

oeil

oculus

👁️

ull

👁️

göz

👁️

οφθαλμός

kijker

🔭

chas

👁️

Pronounced as (IPA)

/aɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: eye

Inherited from Old English: ēage

Cognate with Scots: ee

Cognate with Western Frisian: each

Cognate with Dutch: oog

Cognate with German: Auge

Cognate with Danish: øje

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: øye

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: auga

Cognate with Swedish: öga

Cognate with Latin: oculus

Cognate with English: oculus

Cognate with Lithuanian: akìs

Cognate with Church Slavic: око

Cognate with Albanian: sy

Cognate with Ancient Greek: ὄψ

Cognate with Armenian: ակն

Cognate with Avestan: 𐬀𐬱𐬌

Cognate with Sanskrit: अक्षि

Inherited from Middle English: eyen

Inherited from Old English: ēaġan

In summary

From Middle English eye, yë, eyghe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots ee, eh (“eye”), North Frisian Oog, 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”).
Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian aki̇̀s, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌 (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.
The archaic plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēaġan, nominative and accusative plural of ēaġe (“eye”).

Sentences

But the boy never took his eye off his new friend .

But that was simply because my eye was tired .

Try to make eye contact with a stranger on the bus , and hold it for five seconds , without speaking .

There are white stains above and behind each eye and behind each ear .

You're losing your eye .