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Cite, Sight, and Site
As homophones—words that sound alike but are distinct— cite, sight, and site are easily confused, but they have different meanings, uses, and origins.
Cite is most often encountered in the sense of "to name in a citation"—that is, a line or short section taken from a piece of writing or a speech; it may also mean "to mention as an example" or "to order to appear in a court of law." Cite is from the Latin citare, "to rouse, call on, summon," source too of citation and recite.
Most of the senses of sight are concerned with seeing. A wonderful spectacle might be described as a sight, as might the general capacity to see anything ("my sight is not as good as it once was"). Sight is also used in a number of fixed phrases, such as "out of sight, out of mind," "sight unseen," and "set one's sights on." Sight comes from Old English gesiht, meaning "the faculty or act of sight, thing seen."
Site is most often concerned with location; it is related to situate, "to locate," and situation, "relative position or combination of circumstances at a particular moment." A building site is the place where a building is, or will be, located. In contemporary English, site is frequently used as a shortened form of website, to refer to the location of a group of web pages. Site comes from Latin situs, meaning "place, position, site."
Associating citation with cite, eyesight with sight, and situate with site may be helpful in applying these correctly.
Synonyms
Examples of site in a Sentence
Quartz Bot, Quartz, 14 Nov. 2024
Head to the Bluesky site, click Sign up, and follow the instructions on screen.
—David Nield, Popular Science, 14 Nov. 2024
The site was for sale after Jones lost a $1.4 billion defamation suit against the families of children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre — which Jones continually spread lies about — forcing him into bankruptcy.
—Justin Curto, Vulture, 14 Nov. 2024
Video taken early Friday by Bender, a popular YouTube channel, showed a group of men, some wearing Maccabi fan colors, picking up pipes and boards from a construction site, then chasing and beating a man.
—Henry Austin, NBC News, 13 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Site.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/site. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
site
noun
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