Synonyms for see
- verb
- interjection
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Understand — to form a mental picture of, to perceive in a certain way. To understand
understand, find, watch, find out, consider, get, notice, hear, discover, check, regard, look upon, realize, realise UK, learn, believe, discern, comprehend, witness, ascertain, follow, note, mark
2. Perceive with the eyes
view, observe, behold, sight, spot, distinguish, gaze, spy, espy, descry formal
4. Meet
Other
examine, visit, go out, call on, take in, go, go through, experience, take care, catch, attend, escort
Interjection
look, so, well, lol, thank gods
Definitions
- v. 1
To form a mental picture of, to perceive in a certain way. To understand.
- v. 2
To perceive or detect someone or something with the eyes, or as if by sight.
To see us, you'd think we've been married for years, but actually just met a few months ago.
- v. 3
To perceive or detect someone or something with the eyes, or as if by sight. To witness or observe by personal experience.
I'm seeing much better since I got my eyeglasses recalibrated.
- interj. 1
Introducing an explanation.
See, in order to win the full prize we would have to come up with a scheme to land a rover on the Moon.
Related words
- Word family
- seeability seeable see-through
- Phrases
- see to it see-through lai see see you later see things see the light see to see a man
- Other spellings
- cee
Forms
- Past participle
- seen
e.g. seen → watched, considered, getten, noticed…
Choose the right word
What we discern we see apart from all other objects; what we discriminate we judge apart; what we distinguish we mark apart, or recognize by some special mark or manifest difference.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- find Everywhere you go, you will find the same scenery.
- understand I understand now why he didn't go to a university.
- watch Bob hurried home in order to watch the TV program.
- view The house is screened from view with a high fence.
- observe Catholics could not openly observe their religion.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| see | rising | |
| find | rising | |
| understand | rising | |
| watch | rising | |
| view | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 2 letters
- so1, go1
- 3 letters
- get1, lol1, spy1
- 4 letters
- well1, find1, look1, meet1, hear1, view1, note1, mark1, spot1, gaze1, espy2
- 5 letters
- watch1, check1, learn1, visit2, image2, catch1, sight1, fancy2
- 6 letters
- follow2, figure2, notice2, attend2, regard2, escort2, behold2, descry2
- 7 letters
- believe2, project2, picture2, imagine3, realize3, witness2, realise3, examine3, observe2, discern2
- 8 letters
- consider3, discover3, envision3
- 9 letters
- encounter3, ascertain3, visualize3, visualise
- 10 letters
- understand3, experience4, comprehend3
- 11 letters
- distinguish3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (espy2 = 2 syllables).