Definitions

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

  • noun The faculty of sight; eyesight.
  • noun Something that is or has been seen.
  • noun Unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight.
  • noun The manner in which one sees or conceives of something.
  • noun A mental image produced by the imagination.
  • noun The mystical experience of seeing something that is not in fact present to the eye or is supernatural.
  • noun A person or thing of extraordinary beauty.
  • transitive verb To see in a vision.
  • transitive verb To picture in the mind; envision.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To see as in a vision; perceive by the eye of the intellect or imagination.
  • To present in or as in a vision.
  • noun The act of seeing external objects; sight.
  • noun The faculty that perceives the luminosity, color, form, and relative size of objects; that sense whose organ is the eye; by extension, an analogous mental power. As noting one of the five special senses of the body, vision is correlated with olfaction, audition, gustation, and taction. See sight.
  • noun That which is seen; an object of sight; specifically, a supernatural or prophetic appearance; something seen in a dream, ecstasy, trance, or the like; also, an imaginary appearance; an apparition; a phantom.
  • noun Anything unreal or imaginary; a mere creation of fancy; a fanciful view.

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

  • noun The act of seeing external objects; actual sight.
  • noun (Physiol.) The faculty of seeing; sight; one of the five senses, by which colors and the physical qualities of external objects are appreciated as a result of the stimulating action of light on the sensitive retina, an expansion of the optic nerve.
  • noun That which is seen; an object of sight.
  • noun Especially, that which is seen otherwise than by the ordinary sight, or the rational eye; a supernatural, prophetic, or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom; a specter.
  • noun Hence, something unreal or imaginary; a creation of fancy.
  • noun (Astron.) the arc which measures the least distance from the sun at which, when the sun is below the horizon, a star or planet emerging from his rays becomes visible.
  • noun (Theol.) the immediate sight of God in heaven.
  • noun (Opt.) vision when the image of the object falls directly on the yellow spot (see under Yellow); also, vision by means of rays which are not deviated from their original direction.
  • noun field of view. See under Field.
  • noun (Opt.) vision when the rays of light from an object fall upon the peripheral parts of the retina.
  • noun vision by rays reflected from mirrors, or refracted by lenses or prisms, respectively.
  • noun (Physiol.) See Visual purple, under Visual.
  • transitive verb To see in a vision; to dream.

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

  • noun uncountable The sense or ability of sight.
  • noun countable Something imaginary one thinks one sees.
  • noun countable An ideal or a goal toward which one aspires.
  • noun countable A religious or mystical experience of a supernatural appearance.
  • noun countable A person or thing of extraordinary beauty.
  • verb transitive To imagine something as if it were to be true.

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

  • noun the ability to see; the visual faculty
  • noun a religious or mystical experience of a supernatural appearance
  • noun a vivid mental image
  • noun the perceptual experience of seeing
  • noun the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vīsiō, vīsiōn-, from vīsus, past participle of vidēre, to see; see weid- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin visio ("vision, seeing"), noun of action from the perfect passive participle visus ("that which is seen"), from the verb videre ("to see") + action noun suffix -io.

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Examples

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  • We are at

    The Nile's end.

    We are carrying particles

    From every continent, creature, and age.

    It has been raining on the plains

    Of our vision for millions of years.

    - Hafiz, 'The Gift', translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

    October 27, 2008

  • to feel, felt, descent

    July 24, 2009