beauty is in the eyes of the beholder meaning

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder(Meaning and How to Use)

Vocabulary / By

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is an expression that means that beauty is subjective. Each person can decide what is beautiful.

There are some things that nearly everyone in the world agrees are beautiful but there are other things that depend on each person’s opinion.

Many things can be beautiful including physical appearance, landscapes, music, and art.

But these things are often subjective and different people have different tastes. This is the context for when we use the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

Eyes of the beholder or Eye of the beholder?

“Eye to the beholder” is correct because in this case, we are not referring to the physical sight of a person.

When we refer to “eye”, we are talking about “the mind’s eye” which is an idea that we see things in our brain. We create a picture of beauty in our minds from our experiences.

If you think about music, we don’t see music but we can also use this expression.

Eye of the beholder Examples

You don’t always have to include the “beauty is in the” part of the proverb.

You can also just use the “eye of the beholder” part.

“Judgment ultimately lies in the eye of the beholder” The times

“You just made that up … Yes. But cheugy is in the eye of the beholder” The Sydney Morning Herald 

 

 

Conor
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