Stye
//ˈstaɪ// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A bacterial infection in the eyelash or eyelid.
"have a stye"
- 2 Alternative form of sty (“shelter for pigs”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 an infection of the sebaceous gland of the eyelid wordnet
Example
More examples"A pair of sunglasses could hide a stye."
Etymology
First recorded in the 17th century; probably a back-formation from Middle English styanye (first recorded in the 15th century), which in turn comes from Old English stīgend (“a small tumour on the edge of the eyelid, stye”), from the verb stīgan (“to climb, ascend, rise”) + Middle English eie (“eye”). Equivalent to sty + eye.
Related phrases
More for "stye"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.