peephole

English

View through a peephole

Barack Obama looking through the Oval Office door peephole

Etymology

From peep +‎ hole.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /piːphəʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /piphoʊl/, IPA^(key): [pʰiphoʊɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: peep‧hole

Noun

peephole (plural peepholes)

1. A small hole, opening, or piece of glass, especially in a door, through which one can look without being seen.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     It’s a conjurer’s den. — I shouldn’t be surprised if cabby’s old gent is staring at us all the while from some peephole of his own.

Synonyms

• spyhole (UK)
• peekhole
• doorhole
• door viewer

Derived terms

• peephole optimization

Related terms

• knothole, eyehole

Translations

hole

• Afrikaans: loergat
• Arabic: مَنْوَر m (manwar), كُوَّة f (kuwwa), وَصْوَص m (waṣwaṣ), ثَقْب اَلْبَاب (ṯaqb al-bāb), عَيْن سِحْرِيَّة f (ʕayn siḥriyya)
• Bulgarian: шпионка (bg) f (špionka)
• Catalan: espiera (ca) f, espiell (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (a small hole or opening) 窺視孔／窥视孔 (kuīshì kǒng), (a glass device) 門鏡／门镜 (ménjìng), 貓眼／猫眼 (zh) (māoyǎn), 窺視鏡／窥视镜 (kuīshìjìng)

• Czech: kukátko n, špehýrka (cs) f
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: ovisilmä (fi); kurkistusreikä, kurkistusaukko, kurkistusluukku
• French: judas (fr) m
• German: Spion (de) m, Türspion (de) m
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: kémlelőnyílás (hu), kukucskáló (hu)
• Italian: spioncino (it) m
• Japanese: 覗き穴 (のぞきあな, nozoki-ana)
• Macedonian: шпионка f (špionka)
• Norman: ouïe d'l'us
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tittehull n

• Persian: چشمی (fa) (češmi)
• Polish: wizjer (pl) m, judasz (pl) m
• Portuguese: olho mágico m, óculo (pt) m
• Romanian: vizor (ro) n
• Russian: глазо́к (ru) m (glazók), смотрово́е отве́рстие n (smotrovóje otvérstije), смотрова́я щель f (smotrovája ščelʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: зурка f, шпијунка f

  Roman: zurka (sh) f, špijunka (sh) f

• Slovak: priezor m
• Spanish: mirilla f, ojo mágico m (Latin America)
• Swedish: kikhål (sv) n
• Thai: ตาแมว (dtaa-mɛɛo)
• Turkish: gözetleme deliği (tr), kapı dürbünü
• Volapük: logedahog

Further reading

• “peephole”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “peephole”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “peephole”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “peephole”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.