sight

verb

sighted; sighting; sights

transitive verb

1

: to get or catch sight of

several whales were sighted

2

: to look at through or as if through a sight

especially : to test for straightness

3

: to aim by means of sights

4

a

: to equip with sights

b

: to adjust the sights of

intransitive verb

1

: to take aim

2

: to look carefully in a particular direction

Did you know?

Cite, Sight, and Site

As homophones—words that sound alike but are distinct— cite, sight, and site are easily confused, but they have different meanings, uses, and origins.

Cite is most often encountered in the sense of "to name in a citation"—that is, a line or short section taken from a piece of writing or a speech; it may also mean "to mention as an example" or "to order to appear in a court of law." Cite is from the Latin citare, "to rouse, call on, summon," source too of citation and recite.

Most of the senses of sight are concerned with seeing. A wonderful spectacle might be described as a sight, as might the general capacity to see anything ("my sight is not as good as it once was"). Sight is also used in a number of fixed phrases, such as "out of sight, out of mind," "sight unseen," and "set one's sights on." Sight comes from Old English gesiht, meaning "the faculty or act of sight, thing seen."

Site is most often concerned with location; it is related to situate, "to locate," and situation, "relative position or combination of circumstances at a particular moment." A building site is the place where a building is, or will be, located. In contemporary English, site is frequently used as a shortened form of website, to refer to the location of a group of web pages. Site comes from Latin situs, meaning "place, position, site."

Associating citation with cite, eyesight with sight, and situate with site may be helpful in applying these correctly.

Synonyms of sight

• notice
• eye
• spot
• see
• regard

Examples of sight in a Sentence

They sighted a ship in the distance.

Several bears have been sighted in the area.

Recent Examples on the Web

Grace Goodwin Numerous funnel clouds were sighted with the line of strong storms across the metro area from Lakewood, Parker, Castle Pines, Chatfield and near the Bennett area. —Jesse Sarles, CBS News, 1 June 2026

How did Imagineering decide which sights to include and which ones to leave out? —Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 1 June 2026

All the meteors Tupman sighted appeared to emanate from the zodiacal constellation of Aquarius the Water Bearer. —Joe Rao, Space.com, 4 May 2026

Since late March, velella have been sighted on beaches in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Luis Obispo County, and along the coast of Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties. —Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Phrases Containing sight

• a far sight
• a sight to see/behold
• a sight/wonder to behold
• at first sight
• at the sight of
• by sight
• come in/within sight of (something)
• drop out of sight
• get out of my sight
• heave in/into sight
• in plain sight
• in sight
• in someone's line of sight
• into sight
• line of sight
• lose one's sight
• lose sight of
• no end in sight
• not a pretty sight
• on sight
• open sight
• out-of-sight
• out of sight, out of mind
• peep sight
• second sight
• shoot on sight
• short sight
• sight for sore eyes
• sight gag
• sight hound
• sight line
• sight-read
• sight rhyme
• sight unseen
• within sight of (something)

Rhymes for sight

• bight
• bite
• blight
• byte
• cite
• dight
• fight
• fite
• flight
• fright
• height
• hight

Kids Definition

sight

1 of 2 noun

ˈsīt 

1

: something that is seen : spectacle

2

a

: something that is worth seeing

showed us the sights of the city

b

: something that is peculiar, funny, or messy

you're a sight

3

: the process, power, or function of seeing

especially : the animal sense of which the sense organ is the eye and by which the position, shape, and color of objects are perceived

4

: the act of seeing

knows him by sight

faints at the sight of blood

5

: the perception of an object within the visual field

lost sight of the plane

6

: the space over which a person can see

a ship came into sight

7

: a device that aids the eye in aiming or in finding the direction of an object

8

plural : aspiration sense 3a, goal sense 2

set her sights on a career in law

sight

2 of 2 verb

1

: to get or catch sight of

several bears were sighted

2

: to look at through or as if through a sight

Medical Definition

sight

noun

ˈsīt 

1

: something that is seen

2

: the process, power, or function of seeing

specifically : the one of the five basic physical senses by which light stimuli received by the eye are interpreted by the brain and constructed into a representation of the position, shape, brightness, and usually color of objects in space

3

a

: a perception of an object by the eye

b

: the range of vision

Legal Definition

sight

adjective

: payable on presentation see also sight draft at draft