Glasses
accessories that improve human vision
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses, spectacles, or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms, known as temples or temple pieces, that rest over the ears for support. Glasses are typically used for vision correction, such as with reading glasses and glasses used for nearsightedness; however, without the specialized lenses, they are also at times used for cosmetic purposes. Wearers may use straps tied to their glasses to prevent them from falling off. Wearers of glasses that are used only part of the time may have the glasses attached to a cord that goes around their neck to prevent the loss and breaking of the glasses.
The earliest ancestors of modern eyeglasses were 13th-century Italian "reading stones". Due to the objects having no arms, wearers had to hold these magnifying spheres directly over their books. The familiar temple arms that hook over a wearer's ears were not invented until the 1700s.
Safety glasses are eye protection, a form of personal protective equipment (PPE) that are worn by workers around their eyes for protection. Safety glasses act as a shield to protect the eyes from any type of foreign debris that may cause irritation or injury; these glasses may have protection on the sides of the eyes as well as in the lenses. Some types of safety glasses are used to protect against visible and near-visible light or radiation.
The public source identifies “Glasses” as accessories that improve human vision. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Glasses, accessories and improve.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q37501. The Library of Congress control number is sh85046700. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Glasses” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.