Sight or site?
sight is a noun meaning “The sense or faculty by which objects are perceived through the agency of…”; site is a noun meaning “The place where anything is fixed; situation; local position”. They sound the same (/saɪt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) site is about 4.8 times as common as sight.
What is the difference between sight and site?
| sight | site | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | 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 | The place where anything is fixed; situation; local position A place fitted or chosen for any certain permanent use or occupation To situate or place a building or construction project |
| Example | Sight is a precious gift | the site of a city or of a house |
| Forms | sights | sites |
| Pronunciation | /saɪt/ /səɪt/ | /saɪt/ |
| In writing | 35 times per million words | 166 times per million words |
Sources: sight and site 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 sight and site
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
site
- 1
The place where anything is fixed; situation; local position
the site of a city or of a house
- 2
To situate or place a building or construction project
The U.K. government is dusting off an alternative plan to site the center at a military outfit such as Porton Down
- 3
A place fitted or chosen for any certain permanent use or occupation
a site for a church
- 4
The posture or position of a thing
- 5
A computer installation, particularly one associated with an intranet or internet service or telecommunications
- 6
A website
- 7
A category together with a choice of Grothendieck topology
- 8
Region of a protein, a piece of DNA or RNA where chemical reactions take place
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, sight or site?
sight appears 35 times per million words; site 166 times per million words.
sight 35 times per million wordssite 166 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 sight vs site?
“sight vs site” is searched about 5,400 times a month on Google and 70 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“site vs sight”, “sight or site”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.