The words
cite, sight, and site are homophones: they sound the same but have different
meanings.
The verb
cite means to acknowledge, mention, or quote as an authority or example. (Also
see citation.) Cite also means to officially order (someone) to appear in a
court of law. In addition, cite means to recognize or praise someone, usually
for a notable achievement.
The noun
sight refers to the power or process of seeing or to something that is seen.
The noun
site means a plot of land or a particular place or scene.
Examples
• This style guide explains how to cite
sources in a term paper.
• "I complimented his organization
on its unusually courteous and efficient service, and cited the saleswoman as
an outstanding example of the store's high caliber."
(Jerzy
Kosinski, Cockpit, 1975)
• "When he spoke, I saw that his
teeth were white and straight, and the sight of them suddenly made me
understand that Grossbart actually did have parents—that once upon a time
someone had taken little Sheldon to the dentist.
(Philip
Roth, "Defender of the Faith." Goodbye, Columbus, 1959)
• "A group of teachers of foreign
languages met in Nashville, Tennessee. The Opryland Hotel was the site of the
conference."
(Maya
Angelou, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table. Random House, 2007)
Idiom Alerts
• The expression a sight for sore eyes
is a way of saying that someone is attractive or that you're very pleased to
see some person or thing.
"Mrs.
Evans! you are certainly a sight for sore eyes! I don't know how you manage to
look so unruffled and cool and young! With all those children."
(Jo Britten
in James Baldwin's play Blues for Mister Charlie, 1964)
• The oxymoronic expression sight unseen
means to accept or purchase something without first having had an opportunity
to look at it.
"I'll
tell you something really crazy. I just bought a house on Nob Hill--three and a
half stories and forty rooms. It takes up half a block on Sacramento and Clay,
right behind Jim Flood's mansion. I bought it sight unseen.”
(John Jakes,
California Gold. Random House, 1989)
Practice
(a)
"Allanbank was finally demolished, but despite this Jean's ghost has
subsequently been seen on the _____ of the house and along the driveway, much
to the relief of the local people who have come to love her."
(Allan Scott-Davies,
Shadows on the Water: The Haunted Canals and Waterways of Britain. The History
Press, 2010)
(b) Authors
who work on the same subject tend to _____ the same research papers.
(c) "It
was a disgusting _____, that bathroom. All the indecent secrets of our
underwear were exposed; the grime, the rents and patches, the bits of string
doing duty for buttons, the layers upon layers of fragmentary garments, some of
them mere collections of holes held together by dirt."
(George
Orwell, "The Spike." The Adelphi, April 1931)
Answers to Practice Exercises: Cite,
Sight, and Site
(a)
"Allanbank was finally demolished, but despite this Jean's ghost has
subsequently been seen on the site of the house and along the driveway, much to
the relief of the local people who have come to love her."
(Allan
Scott-Davies, Shadows on the Water: The Haunted Canals and Waterways of
Britain. The History Press, 2010)
(b) Authors
who work on the same subject tend to cite the same research papers.
(c) "It
was a disgusting sight, that bathroom. All the indecent secrets of our
underwear were exposed; the grime, the rents and patches, the bits of string
doing duty for buttons, the layers upon layers of fragmentary garments, some of
them mere collections of holes held together by dirt."
(George
Orwell, "The Spike." The Adelphi, April 1931)
by Richard
Nordquist
