Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A visual defect in which one eye cannot focus with the other on an object because of imbalance of the eye muscles.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Squint; a failure of one of the visual axes to pass through the fixation-point (the point which is looked at).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) An affection of one or both eyes, in which the optic axes can not be directed to the same object, -- a defect due either to undue contraction or to undue relaxation of one or more of the muscles which move the eyeball; squinting; cross-eye.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A defect of vision in which one eye cannot focus with the other on an object because of imbalance of the eye muscles; a squint.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun abnormal alignment of one or both eyes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek strabismos, condition of squinting, from strabizein, to squint, from strabos, squinting; see streb(h)- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Modern Latin strabismus, from Ancient Greek στραβισμός (strabismos), from στραβίζω (strabizō, "to squint"), from στραβός (strabos, “squinting”; whence the synonymous Latin strabus).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word strabismus.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • There's no business like strabismus...

    October 18, 2007

  • See earworm.

    October 18, 2007

  • Not fun in real life, but a great word. When I'm working on ophthalmic texts, I can't decide whether I like this or amblyopia better.

    October 18, 2007

  • Do you mean Worse Than It Sounds, reesetee?? Hmmm???

    May 3, 2008

  • Why, yes--I suppose I do. Thanks, c_b!

    May 4, 2008