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PlainSpell

eye

/ˈaɪ̯/noun, verb

eye is spelled E-Y-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, eye means “An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of eye is eyes; Wiktionary also lists eyen (archaic).

How many letters and syllables are in eye?

Letters3: E-Y-E
Syllables1
In writing105 times per million words; the 1,021st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is eye?

Eye appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st 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).

How do you pronounce eye?

  • /ˈaɪ̯/
  • [ˈaɪ̯]
  • Australia /ˈɑɪ̯/

Eye has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-eye.ogg, En-au-Commander_Keane-eye.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with eye

Also written: ey.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with eye?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as eye.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: yee.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of eye

  • eyes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • eyeing participle, present
  • eying participle, present, rare
  • eyed participle, past
  • i

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does eye mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).

    Near-synonym: eyeball

  2. 2

    The visual sense.

    The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.

  3. 3

    The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.

    Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.

  4. 4

    Attention, notice.

    That dress caught her eye.

  5. 5

    The ability to notice what others might miss.

    He has an eye for talent.

  6. 6

    A sexually or romantically suggestive one.

    She was giving him the eye at the bar.

  7. 7

    An angry, annoyed, or malicious one.

    When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.

  8. 8

    An evil one.

    He sought the help of an alchemist regarding remedies to ward off the eye.

  9. 9

    The name of the Latin script letter I/i.

    IED [is spoken] as "eye-ee-dee" instead of "I SPELL India Echo Delta Romeo".

  10. 10

    A brood.

    an eye of pheasants

verb

  1. 1

    To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).

    After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.

  2. 2

    To consider.

    Mr. Smith is eyeing a departmental reorganization plan.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo appear; to look.

  4. 4

    To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).

  5. 5

    To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Eye in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchœil (organ), chas, trou (hole in needle), œillet (loop of metal), convoiter, guigner (to observe carefully or appraisingly)
GermanAuge, Aug (organ), Öhr, Nadelöhr (hole in needle), Öse (loop of metal), beäugen (to observe carefully or appraisingly)
Portugueseolho (organ), fundo, buraco (hole in needle), argola (loop of metal), observar (to observe carefully or appraisingly), ocelo (mark on an animal resembling an eye)
Spanishojo, clisos, lumbreras, lucero (organ), hondón (hole in needle), ojear (to observe carefully or appraisingly)

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 eye come from?

From Middle English e, eye, eyghe, eyȝe, eȝhe, iȝe, ye, yhe, from Old English ēage, ēge (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”). Related to ogle.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after eye