Argus-eyed
Syllables: Ar·gus-eyedUK/ˈɑːɡəsˌaɪd/US/ˈɑɹɡəsˌaɪd/
Argus-eyed adjective: ever vigilant; watchful to the point that nothing escapes notice.
Adjective
Argus-eyed (comparative more Argus-eyed, superlative most Argus-eyed)
- Ever vigilant; watchful to the point that nothing escapes notice.
- Nothing got past the Argus-eyed proctor at the back of the hall.
- […] the Argus-eyed surveillance to which women are subjected.1899, Henry Theophilus Finck, Primitive Love and Love-Stories
- Synonyms:
- eagle-eyed, hawk-eyed, lynx-eyed, open-eyed, wakeful, watchful, alert, aware, heedful, hip
- Antonyms:
- heedless, inattentive, oblivious, unobservant
- Possessing exceptionally keen eyesight; sharp-eyed.
- An Argus-eyed hawk can pick out a mouse from half a mile up.
- Synonyms:
- keen-sighted, quick-sighted, sharp-sighted
Synonyms of Argus-eyed
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- observant
- on guard
- on the lookout
- on the watch
- on watch
- vigilant
- wakesome
- wary
- woke
- keen-sighted
- quick-sighted
- sharp-sighted
Antonyms
Forms of Argus-eyed
| comparative | more Argus-eyed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most Argus-eyed |
| alternative form | argus-eyed |
Origin of Argus-eyed
Argus + eye + -ed, a parasynthetic formation (compare blue-eyed, eagle-eyed). From Argus Panoptes (Ἄργος Πανόπτης (Árgos Panóptēs, “all-seeing Argus”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὄπτης (óptēs, “one who sees”)), a many-eyed giant of Greek mythology who served Hera as a watchman. Set to guard Io, a priestess whom Zeus had transformed into a heifer, Argus kept unceasing watch because some of his hundred eyes always remained open; he was eventually lulled asleep and slain by Hermes, after which Hera set his eyes into the tail of the peacock. His name became proverbial for unsleeping watchfulness, whence the adjective. Attested since before 1500. Compare the roughly contemporaneous Argus-like (from 1597), and the unrelated-in-sense but same-eponym argus (“a butterfly marked with eyespots”).
Questions about Argus-eyed
- What does Argus-eyed mean?
- Argus-eyed means ever vigilant; watchful to the point that nothing escapes notice.
- What part of speech is Argus-eyed?
- Argus-eyed is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce Argus-eyed?
- Argus-eyed is pronounced /ˈɑːɡəsˌaɪd/ (UK).
Words near Argus-eyed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Argus-eyed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Argus-eyed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/argus-eyed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.