Meaning & use
eye openers
Last updated
“eye openers” is a form of “eye-opener”.
Meaning
nounpluralinformal
Experiences, facts or events that surprise people and make them understand something they had not realized before.
Grammar: Plural of eye-opener: Those trips were real eye openers.
Patterns
- something is an eye opener for someone
- real eye openers
The two weeks spent volunteering abroad were eye openers for the students.
Her first jobs were eye openers about how businesses really work.
The documentary's statistics were eye openers to many viewers.
Word forms
| singular | eye-opener |
|---|
Common combinations
- real eye openers
- Those meetings were real eye openers.
- prove to be eye openers
- The visits proved to be eye openers for the visitors.
- an eye opener for someone
- The city tour was an eye opener for the new students.
- travel eye openers
- Long trips can be great eye openers about other cultures.
Synonyms and how they differ
- revelations
- Revelations is more formal and can describe a big discovery, while eye openers sounds chatty and personal.
- surprises
- Surprises are simply unexpected things, but eye openers also teach you something.
- wake-up calls
- Wake-up calls usually warn of a problem you must act on, whereas eye openers need not be negative.
- shocks
- Shocks stress emotional upset, while eye openers stress new understanding.
Opposites
Word family
- eye-opener noun
- one surprising, enlightening thing
- eye-opening adjective
- surprising and teaching you something new
- open verb
- to make or become open
Commonly confused: eye openers or wake-up call?
eye openers vs wake-up call
A wake-up call warns you of danger or a need to change; an eye-opener just reveals something new.
Practice
Choose the best word. Living abroad for a year was one of the biggest ______ of my life.
Choose one answer.
Eye openers are experiences that show you something new. The other options are physical things related to eyes and do not fit this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “eye openers”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.