English → Latin
“see” in Latin
sēdēsseat, chair; place, residence, settlement, habitation, abodeepiscopusoverseer, supervisor, bishop (in a Christian church who governs a diocese)videōto see, perceive; look (at); to observe, note; to understand, perceive, comprehendcernōto distinguish, divide, separate, sift; to perceive, see, discern, behold; to (intellectually) comprehend, discern, regaspectōto watch, observe, look at, consider; to examine, try, test; to aim, strive, or endeavour afteraspiciōto look at, towards, or upon; behold, gaze at or upon; view, see, examine, survey, inspect, investigate; regard, respectcōnspicorto see; to observe, notice, catch sight of, spot; to perceivecōnsīderōto examine, look at or inspect, survey; to consider, reflect, contemplate, meditatecaveōto take precautions, beware, take care; to guard against, attend to a thing for a person, provide; to guard against, to prōvideōto foresee; to be cautious; to act with foresight; to provide, see to
The English word see itself goes back to Latin sēdēs.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
see s.
*sedes (episcopi).
see v.
Perceive or distinguish by sight, videre (ἰδεῖν, to possess the faculty of vision; ☞ tueri, in the same sense, is poetical): cernere (κρίνειν, to discern, distinguish by the sight), or oculis cernere aliquid: oculis percipere: spectare (to look at attentively or anxiously, to survey closely or narrowly): aspicere (to turn the eyes to, to look at): conspicari (to see at a distance; usually in the perfect passive participle, and in Caes.). To go to see, visere: to see well, bene, acute, acriter videre; acres et acutos habere oculos: to see to a great distance, longe videre: not to see, carere sensu oculorum (not to possess the faculty): caecum esse (to be blind, to have lost or been deprived of the faculty): to be able neither to see nor to hear, oculis auribusque captum esse: not to see so well with the right eye as with the left, dextro oculo non aeque bene uti (Nep.; opposed to sinistro oculo minus videre, Suet.): to see well with one eye, altero oculo bene videre (Cic.): to see clearly, clare videre oculis (Plaut.); videre perspicue, diligenter, recte: not to be able to see anything, fugit aliquid aciem, obtutum oculorum; effugit aliquid sensum oculorum (opposed to cadere in conspectum): not to endure to see anything, vultum alicujus pati non posse; oculi mei aliquid ferre non possunt: worth seeing, visendus; spectandus; conspiciendus; visu or spectatu dignus: it is worth seeing, aliquid dignum est, quod spectetur: see! = BEHOLD, Vid: ☞ After “to wait, etc.,” a dependent interrogative clause often follows immediately, “to see” being omitted: “when all were waiting to see who would be so, etc.” exspectantibus omnibus, quisnam esset, etc.
Figuratively, To observe, perceive, notice, videre; videre animo; cernere (mente); also, perspicere; animadvertere; intelligere: to see in a dream, videre aliquid in somnis (Cic.); per somnum, per quietem (Justinus): the enemy saw himself obliged to retreat, hostis se recipere coactus erat: to see through, perspicere, animo videre: to see through a plan, quid agat aliquis, quid moliatur, sentire et videre.
To consider, videre: considerare. I will see presently, mox videro (☞ less commonly videbo, Matth., Excurs. de fut. exact.).
To take precaution, be on one’s guard, videre: cavere.
To provide, videre: providere: curare.
To conjecture, conclude, videre: intelligere: conjicere: colligere
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for see?
- The usual Latin words for “see” are sēdēs, episcopus, videō; also cernō, spectō, aspiciō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.