binoculars

English

A pair of binoculars

Etymology

Abbreviation of "binocular glass".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪnˌɒk.jʊ.lə(ɹ)z/, /ˈbənˌɒk.jə.lə(ɹ)z/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

binoculars pl (normally plural, singular binocular)

1. A hand-held device consisting of a series of lenses and prisms, used to magnify objects so that they can be better seen from a distance, and looked at through both eyes.
   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind‎^[1]:

     He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.

Usage notes

• A single device is called a pair of binoculars, and the plural "pairs of binoculars" is used for more than one device.

Synonyms

• binocs
• binos
• field glasses
• opera glasses
• spyglass

Derived terms

• Galilean binoculars
• pair of binoculars
• scissor binoculars
• trench binoculars
• trinoculars

 

Translations

hand-held device for looking at a distance

• Afrikaans: verkyker
• Albanian: dylbi (sq) f
• Arabic: مِنْظَار (ar) m (minẓār)
• Armenian: հեռադիտակ (hy) (heṙaditak)
• Azerbaijani: binokl, durbin
• Bashkir: бинокль (binoklʹ)
• Basque: prismatikoak pl
• Belarusian: біно́кль m (binóklʹ)
• Bengali: দূরবিন (bn) (durbin)
• Breton: gevellunedenn f
• Bulgarian: бино́къл (binókǎl)
• Burmese: မှန်ပြောင်း (my) (hmanpraung:)
• Buryat: дурам (duram)
• Catalan: binocles m pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 望遠鏡 / 望远镜 (zh) (wàngyuǎnjìng), 雙筒望遠鏡 / 双筒望远镜 (zh) (shuāngtǒng wàngyuǎnjìng)

• Crimean Tatar: dürbin
• Czech: dalekohled (cs) m
• Danish: kikkert (da) c
• Dutch: verrekijker (nl) m
• Esperanto: binoklo (eo)
• Estonian: binokkel, binoklid
• Faroese: kikari m
• Finnish: kiikari (fi)
• French: jumelles (fr) f pl, jumelle (fr) f
• Galician: prismáticos m pl, binóculos m pl
• Georgian: ბინოკლი (binoḳli), დურბინდი (durbindi)
• German: Fernglas (de) n, Feldstecher (de) m
• Greek: διόπτρες (el) f pl (dióptres), κιάλια (el) n pl (kiália)
• Haitian Creole: longvi
• Hebrew: מִשְׁקֶפֶת (he) (mishkefet)
• Hindi: दूरबीन f (dūrbīn)
• Hungarian: távcső (hu), látcső (hu), messzelátó (hu)
• Icelandic: sjónauki (is) m, kíkir (is) m
• Ido: bilorno (io)
• Indonesian: teropong (id)
• Irish: gloiní f pl, déshúiligh m pl
• Italian: binocolo (it) m
• Japanese: 双眼鏡 (ja) (そうがんきょう, sōgankyō)
• Kazakh: дүрбі (dürbı), бинокль (binokl)
• Khmer: កែវយឹត (kaew yɨt), យឹតយឺត (yɨt yɨt)
• Korean: 쌍안경(雙眼鏡) (ko) (ssang'an'gyeong)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دووربین(ی) (dûrbîn(î)), دووچاوی (dûçawî)

  Northern Kurdish: dûrbîn (ku)

• Kyrgyz: дүрбү (ky) (dürbü), бинокль (ky) (binokl)
• Lao: ກ້ອງ (kǭng), ກ້ອງສ່ອງ (lo) (kǭng sǭng)
• Latvian: binoklis m, tālskatis m
• Lithuanian: binoklis m
• Macedonian: двоглед m (dvogled)
• Malay: teropong, keker
• Maltese: tromba f
• Maori: karu whakatata
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: дуран (mn) (duran)

• Norman: longues-veues f pl
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kikkert m

  Nynorsk: kikert m, kikkert m

• Oromo: naaduraa
• Ossetian: кӕсӕнцӕст (kæsæncæst), бинокль (binoklʹ)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: دورْبین (durbin), دوچِشْمی (dočešmi)

• Polish: lorneta f, lornetka (pl) f
• Portuguese: binóculo (pt) m, binóculos (pt) m pl
• Romanian: binoclu (ro) n
• Russian: бино́кль (ru) m (binóklʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: двоглед m, доглед m, дурбин m, далекозор m, далекоглед m

  Roman: dvogled (sh) m, dogled (sh) m, durbin (sh) m, dalekozor (sh) m, dalekogled m

• Slovak: ďalekohľad m
• Slovene: daljnogled (sl) m
• Spanish: prismáticos (es) m pl, binoculares m pl, gemelos (es) m pl, anteojos prismáticos m pl, gemelos prismáticos m pl, largavista (es) m
• Swedish: kikare (sv) c
• Tagalog: duhansipat, largabista
• Tajik: дурбин (durbin)
• Tatar: бинокль (binoql’)
• Tausug: talumpung
• Thai: กล้องสองตา (glɔ̂ng-sɔ̌ɔng-dtaa), กล้องสนาม (glɔ̂ng-sà-nǎam)
• Tibetan: རྒྱང་ཤེལ (rgyang shel)
• Turkish: dürbün (tr), bakaç (tr)
• Turkmen: dürbi, binokl
• Ukrainian: біно́кль (uk) m (binóklʹ)
• Urdu: دُوربِین f (dūrbīn)
• Uyghur: دۇربۇن (durbun)
• Uzbek: durbin (uz), binokl (uz)
• Vietnamese: ống nhòm (vi), ống ngắm, con mắt xa
• Volapük: fagiologöm (vo)
• Welsh: ysbienddrych m, sbenglas m
• Yagnobi: дурбен (durben)

See also

• binocular