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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
John Hopewell, Variety, 20 Jan. 2025
The pair later spent nearly half an hour in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, talking with families of soldiers who died in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing.
—Will Weissert, arkansasonline.com, 20 Jan. 2025
The center also sets up farmers market style pop-up nutrition stations at health care sites and other locations during the year where individuals and families can choose from an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, spices and other foods and also get basic household items.
—Francine Knowles, Chicago Tribune, 20 Jan. 2025
As of Saturday afternoon, the coin was valued at $5.5 billion, according to cryptocurrency site CoinMarketCap.com.
—Justin Gest, Newsweek, 20 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Site.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/site. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
site
noun
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