Word.ws English Dictionary

cat's eye

cat's eye noun: a retroreflective device placed on a road surface as a marking that can be seen even at night.

cat's eye: a retroreflective device placed on a road surface as a marking that can be seen even at night
Image: Zoney, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cat's eye (countable and uncountable, plural cats' eyes or cat's eyes)

  1. (Commonwealth, countable, especially, plural-normally) A retroreflective device placed on a road surface as a marking that can be seen even at night.
  2. (countable) A glass marble with elongated colourful inclusions running through its axis.
    Synonyms:
    cat-eye
  3. A gemstone exhibiting chatoyancy.
  4. Cymophane (translucent yellow chatoyant chrysoberyl).
  5. (New Zealand, countable) A sea snail, Lunella smaragda
  6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cat, eye.; the eye of a cat.

cat's eye meaning in Tamil, Malay and Thai

cat's eye in Tamil

glass marble with elongated inclusions
பூனைக்கண் pūṉaikkaṇ, பூனைக்கண்கல் pūṉaikkaṇkal, பூனைக்கண்வைடூரியம் pūṉaikkaṇvaiṭūriyam

cat's eye in Malay

retroreflective device placed on a road surface
pemantul cahaya

cat's eye in Thai

retroreflective device placed on a road surface
ตาแมว dtaa-mɛɛo

Synonyms of cat's eye

Forms of cat's eye

pluralcats' eyes
pluralcat's eyes
alternative formcat's-eye
alternative formcatseye

Origin of cat's eye

An allusion to the way a cat's eyes will appear to glow when illuminated in the dark. In mineralogy, a calque of French œil de chat.

Questions about cat's eye

What does cat's eye mean?
Cat's eye means a retroreflective device placed on a road surface as a marking that can be seen even at night.
What is cat's eye in Tamil?
Cat's eye in Tamil is பூனைக்கண் (pūṉaikkaṇ), பூனைக்கண்கல் (pūṉaikkaṇkal), பூனைக்கண்வைடூரியம் (pūṉaikkaṇvaiṭūriyam). See Cat's eye meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cat's eye?
Cat's eye is a noun.
What is the plural of cat's eye?
The plural of cat's eye is cats' eyes.

Words near cat's eye in the dictionary

  1. cat's claw
  2. cat's claws
  3. cat's cradle
  4. cat's cradles
  5. cat's ear
  6. cat's eye
  7. cat's eyes
  8. cat's game
  9. cat's love
  10. cat's meat
  11. cat's melodies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cat's eye (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cat's eye.wav.

Cite this entry: “cat's eye.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cat%27s_eye. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.