Alexander Pope
Did you know?
To the modern mind, it's hard to believe that perspective had to be "discovered", but before the 1400s paintings simply lacked accurate perspective. Instead, important people and objects were simply shown larger than less important ones; and although distant objects were sometimes shown smaller than near ones, this wasn't done in a regular and accurate way. Just as odd, many paintings didn't represent the other meaning of perspective either—that is, a scene might not be shown as if it were being seen from one single place. Today, perspective is used much like standpoint. Just as standpoint once used to mean simply the physical place where you stand but today also means the way you "see" things as a result of who you are and what you do, the same could be said about perspective.
Examples of perspective in a Sentence
John Updike, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2007
Courses offer an international perspective, so even a lesson on the American Revolution will interweave sources from Britain and France with views from the Founding Fathers. —Claudia Wallis et al., Time, 18 Dec. 2006
Tipper and I still marvel at everything we saw and the perspective it offered. At a moment when the country was still in the throes of the conflict over Vietnam, it was refreshing to see the best of America. —Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006
whether she was being rude or candid is all a matter of perspective the perspective from the hotel balcony was dominated by the lake and mountains
Joe Buscaglia, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2026 Viewed from certain perspectives—the perspective of history, the perspective of the roughly one quarter of the world that was once colonized by Britain—London is a metropolis built on crime. —Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026 By evening, disruptive Uranus enters your 9th House of Higher Learning and Beliefs, opening your mind to new perspectives, ideas, and possibilities. —Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 25 Apr. 2026 Proper perspective Now, some might argue that California’s recent building pace does not match its hefty status as the nation’s most populous state with 39 million residents. —Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 24 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for perspective
Cite this Entry
“Perspective.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.grautoblog.com/dictionary/perspective. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
perspective
1 of 2 noun
perspective
2 of 2 adjective
