"eye doctor" synonyms

If you feel like the given synonyms come too short, you can add them by yourself either on the definition page of the learning item, or under the meaning during your reviews.

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I agree that oculist feels a little out of place as a standard synonym

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Huuuum… this one is tricky… because there’s 眼科医 and 目医者. I believe that the former is what is closer to ophthalmologist. 目医者 is a more vulgar name (so eye doctor makes sense).

The same way you wouldn’t call a ophthalmologist of “eye doctor”, you wouldn’t call a 眼科医 of 目医者. So I feel like this is fine, due to the more vulgar nature of both 目医者 and eye doctor :man_shrugging:

Not sure though xD

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Looks up 目医者

Finds the definition 眼科医のこと

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Ok, they’re the same thing… but if u can learn the usage also through the translation, why not? xD

I took this up with hello@wanikani.com a few months ago and this is how they (Cyrus) replied:

We removed the terms “optometrist” and “ophthalmologist” from this word’s definition because they both refer to specific types of eye doctors, while 目医者 is a more overarching term for someone who examines eyes. You can add them as user synonyms, of course,

I still think oculist is pretty weird, though.

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Get your eyes checked for glaucoma and get indoctrinated into the Cult of Nyarlathotep at the same time!

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I keep thinking you guys are writing occultist.

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Oh I had assumed that oculist was popular for non-US English speakers, given synonyms like “colour” for “color”.

According to google, it’s a dated term.

I’ll just stick with “eye doctor”. Just like 歯医者 is a “tooth doctor”.

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Oh, I see :eyes:

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And that’s also how my iPhone wants to autocorrect it.

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thanks for the follow-up!

what do you call an optometrist in japanese then?

what’s the point of teaching us “fake” words :<

who else examines eyes though?!

there’s the ophtalmologist, optometrist or even an optician … don’t let anyone else look into your eyes … :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Shin Meikai provides with
目の医者。眼科医。
[表記]「《眼医者」とも書く。

ophtalmologist felt the correct term here… but I can see eye doctor and oculist listed in Kenkyusha as options when translated.

Optometrist in Japanese is 検眼医 (けんがんい) or examine eye doctor.

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Optician is what we generally say in the UK for someone who tests your eyes, I don’t know if they qualify as an eye doctor though? Lots of them don’t go to medical school.

I think of an optician as more of a technician. But optometrists and ophthalmologists are doctors, although of the two, only ophthalmologists are MDs.

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This is getting confusing.

I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that the usage of Optometrist, Optician, and Opthamalogist varies greatly by region, and the exact licensing requirements and role is dependent on local law. I think we can all agree however that NO ONE uses Oculist in 2019, it’s a dated term.

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This is why people describe the activity as much as the person. “I’m going to get my eyes checked” rather than “I’m going to the optometrist”.

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