catch sight of

verb

"catch-sight-of" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“catch sight of” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - to see for a brief period; to get a glimpse of

Key facts for catch sight of
PropertyValue
Headwordcatch sight of
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “catch sight of” sits in English frequency

catch sight of falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

catch sight of is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "to see for a brief period; to get a glimpse of".

No misspelling variants are generated for catch sight of in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is catch sight of, spelled C-A-T-C-H- -S-I-G-H-T- -O-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    to see for a brief period; to get a glimpse of

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "catch sight of"?
"catch sight of" is spelled C-A-T-C-H- -S-I-G-H-T- -O-F.
What does "catch sight of" mean?
As a verb, "catch sight of" means: to see for a brief period; to get a glimpse of
What language does "catch sight of" come from?
"catch sight of" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “catch sight of”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-A-T-C-H- -S-I-G-H-T- -O-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list