crosshair
noun, verb
crosshair is a noun meaning “Alternate form of crosshairs; a reticle in the shape of a pair of crossed hairs (thin perpendicular lines) in the sight of a firearm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-R-O-S-S-H-A-I-R, and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of crosshair is crosshairs.
What does crosshair mean?
noun
- 1
Alternate form of crosshairs; a reticle in the shape of a pair of crossed hairs (thin perpendicular lines) in the sight of a firearm.
verb
- 1
To focus on within a reticle.
- 2
To target.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce crosshair?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-crosshair.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of crosshair
- crosshairs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- crosshairing participle, present
- crosshaired participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is crosshair?
Crosshair appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 102,771st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Crosshair in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Fadenkreuz , ins Visier nehmen, anpeilen |
| Portuguese | retícula |
| Spanish | retículo, retícula, rejilla |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does crosshair come from?
From cross + hair.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).