perspective

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a way of regarding situations or topics etc.
  2. noun the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer

Etymology

From Middle English perspective, perspectif, attested since 1381, from Old French or Middle French, from the first word of the Medieval Latin perspectiva ars (“science of optics”), the feminine of Latin perspectivus (“of sight, optical”), from perspectus, the past participle of perspicere (“to inspect, look through”), itself from per- (“through”) + specere (“to look at”); the noun sense was influenced or mediated by Italian prospettiva, from prospetto (“prospect”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

position, view

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