Word.ws English Dictionary

seeing

/ˈsiː.ɪŋ/

seeing is the present participle and gerund of see.

Noun

seeing (countable and uncountable, plural seeings)

  1. The act or fact of perceiving something with the eyes; eyesight.
    • To such perceivings we give names like these: seeings, hearings, smellings, chillings and burnings, pleasures and pains, desires […]2004, Timothy D. J. Chappell, Reading Plato's Theaetetus, page 73
  2. The movement or distortion of a telescopic image as a result of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere.

Meaning of see

Verb

see (third-person singular simple present sees, present participle seeing, simple past saw or (dialectal) seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed, past participle seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed or (dialectal) saw or (dialectal or eye dialect) sawn)

  1. (transitive) To perceive or detect someone or something with the eyes, or as if by sight.
    • Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path.[…]It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 18
    1. (transitive) To witness or observe by personal experience.
      • Now I've seen it all!
    2. (transitive) To watch (a movie) at a cinema, or a show on television etc.
      • I saw the latest Tarantino flick last week.
  2. To form a mental picture of, to perceive in a certain way.
    • I see it as essential that there should be somewhere to park.
    1. (figuratively) To understand.
      • Do you see what I mean?
    2. (figuratively) To come to a realization of having been mistaken or misled.
      • They're blind to the damage they do, but someday they'll see.

See all 27 meanings of see

Adjective

seeing (not comparable)

  1. Having vision; not blind.
    Synonyms:
    sighted

Conjunction

seeing

  1. (slang) Inasmuch as; in view of the fact that.
    • Seeing the boss wasn't around, we took it easy.

Synonyms of seeing

Forms of seeing

pluralseeings

Origin of seeing

From see + -ing.

Probably an elision of "seeing that" or "seeing as".

Words formed from seeing

Phrases with seeing

66 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with seeing

Questions about seeing

What does seeing mean?
Seeing means having vision; not blind.
What is seeing the present participle and gerund of?
Seeing is the present participle and gerund of see.
What part of speech is seeing?
Seeing can be an adjective, a noun or a conjunction.
How do you pronounce seeing?
Seeing is pronounced /ˈsiː.ɪŋ/.

Words near seeing in the dictionary

  1. Seehafer
  2. Seehafers
  3. Seeheim
  4. seein
  5. seein'
  6. seeing
  7. seeing a man
  8. seeing a man about a dog
  9. seeing a man about a horse
  10. seeing a way clear to
  11. seeing a wolf

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: seeing (page history and authors); see (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: en-us-seeing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “seeing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/seeing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.