Cite or sight?
cite is a verb meaning “To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another”; sight is a noun meaning “The sense or faculty by which objects are perceived through the agency of…”. Use cite as a verb and sight as a noun (sight is also a verb: “To see; to get sight of (something); to register visually”). They sound the same (/saɪt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sight is about 7.4 times as common as cite.
What is the difference between cite and sight?
| cite | sight | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another To mention; to make mention of informalA citation | The sense or faculty by which objects are perceived through the agency of light; the sense by which we see An act, instance, opportunity or possibility of seeing; the perception of objects by the eye; view (see also idiomatic expressions such as in sight, out of… To see; to get sight of (something); to register visually |
| Example | We used the number of cites as a rough measure of the significance of each published paper | Sight is a precious gift |
| Forms | cites, citing, cited | sights |
| Pronunciation | /saɪt/ | /saɪt/ /səɪt/ |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words | 35 times per million words |
Sources: cite and sight in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of cite and sight
cite
- 1
To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another
- 2
informalA citation
We used the number of cites as a rough measure of the significance of each published paper
- 3
To mention; to make mention of
- 4
To mention by way of explanation
- 5
To list the source(s) from which one took information, words or literary or verbal context
- 6
To summon officially or authoritatively to appear in court
sight
- 1
The sense or faculty by which objects are perceived through the agency of light; the sense by which we see
Sight is a precious gift
- 2
To see; to get sight of (something); to register visually
to sight land from a ship
- 3
An act, instance, opportunity or possibility of seeing; the perception of objects by the eye; view (see also idiomatic expressions such as in sight, out of sight, catch sight of, etc.)
The sight of him in his new uniform made us all proud
- 4
To observe through, or as if through, a sight, to check the elevation, direction, levelness, or other characteristics of, especially when surveying or navigating
- 5
Something seen
The sight in front of me seemed somehow familiar
- 6
To apply sights to; to adjust the sights of
to sight a rifle or a cannon
- 7
Something worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad
We went to London and saw all the sights – Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and so on
- 8
To observe or aim (at something) using a (gun) sight
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, cite or sight?
cite appears 4.7 times per million words; sight 35 times per million words.
cite 4.7 times per million wordssight 35 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search cite vs sight?
“cite vs sight” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.