Ophthalm

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A combining form used in medical and scientific terms to mean relating to the eye or the organs of vision
2. A prefix element drawn from Greek that indicates something connected with the eye or the sense of sight
3. Used in building technical words, this root denotes the eye, as in terms for eye diseases or visual structures

Etymology: "Ophthalm-" is not a word on its own in English. It is a combining form, a stem borrowed from Greek "ophthalmos," meaning "eye." English uses it to build technical vocabulary, so it appears in terms like ophthalmology, the study of the eye and its diseases, and ophthalmoscope, an instrument for looking inside the eye. The Greek noun is generally linked to "ops," meaning "eye" or "face," and to forms of the verb for "to see." Greek speakers used the stem for the organ itself, so the eye was named by the same root family that gave them words for sight.