Word.ws English Dictionary

what you see is what you get

what you see is what you get phrase: the image corresponds to the reality.

Phrase

what you see is what you get

  1. The image corresponds to the reality.
    • What you see is what you get. No one's been disappointed yet.1970, Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar
    • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what...1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
    Synonyms:
    WYSIWYG
  2. (idiomatic) The screen image resembles the printed output.
    • For:Word, like Wang's editing system, is an early approach to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processor.1983, Byte, volume 8, page 86

Synonyms of what you see is what you get

Forms of what you see is what you get

alternative formwhat-you-see-is-what-you-get

Origin of what you see is what you get

Originally a humorous allusion to a catchphrase popularized by the comedian Flip Wilson on American TV in the 1960s.

Questions about what you see is what you get

What does what you see is what you get mean?
What you see is what you get means the image corresponds to the reality.
What part of speech is what you see is what you get?
What you see is what you get is a phrase.

Words near what you see is what you get in the dictionary

  1. what you don't know can't hurt you
  2. what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts
  3. what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts
  4. what you on with
  5. what you saying
  6. what you see is what you get
  7. what'cha
  8. what'choo
  9. what'd
  10. what'll
  11. what'm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what you see is what you get (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-au-what you see is what you get.ogg.

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