What does "sclera" mean?

The white of the eye; the tough outer coat of the eye that covers the eyeball except for the cornea.

What is a synonym for "sclera"?

Common synonyms include: sclerotic coat, banjo eyes, eye, eyeball, goggle eyes, iris.

//ˈsklɛəɹə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The white of the eye; the tough outer coat of the eye that covers the eyeball except for the cornea.
"She'd been back a week and it was clear that college-level track was kicking her ass, the sclera in her normally wide manga-eyes were shot through with blood vessels."
2
the whitish fibrous membrane (albuginea) that with the cornea forms the outer covering and protection of the eyeball wordnet

"The choroid is a highly vascularised, darkly pigmented layer found in between the retina and the sclera of the eye."

Borrowed from New Latin sclera, from Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.