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What's the opposite of close set eyes? wide set eyes? far set eyes? :D

I heard this in the TV show Grimm. I got curious what would be the opposite

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It would almost certainly be "wide-set eyes". Though I can't find any reference for the phrase, I find far more examples of it on a simple google search than I do for "far-set".

And it makes a bit more sense. The distance between the two eyes is a width across the face, and really isn't 'far' by any means.

Bear in mind that this expression isn't very widely-used, and that it is distinct from the other expression, 'wide-eyed'.

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  • Yes the term 'wide-eyed' is used metaphorically to express innocence, as in 'a wide-eyed country boy'.
    – WS2
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 14:56
  • That is true, so be sure you don't get the two expressions confused. "wide-set eyes" and "wide-eyed" are very different.
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 15:06
  • I have never heard the term 'wide-set-eyes', and the ODE does not have it. Next time I visit the opticians I will ask them.
    – WS2
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 15:46
  • I didn't find it there either, and the entry for close-set eyes is rather sparse, which leads me to believe it's simply a very rarely used phrase. I havent' been able to find any equivalent antonym, and since it is in-use, it is at the very least an understandable colloquialism.
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 16:17
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    @Zibbobz 'Wide-set eyes' seems to be quite common in articles about make-up
    – Mario Elocio
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 20:02
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It's referred to as "widely spaced eyes", or "hypertelorism", here: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/fryns-syndrome

I should point out that the "hypertelorism" label is reserved for extreme cases, usually as a result of some sort of abnormality. I think "widely spaced eyes" can also be used to describe eyes within the bounds of normality, rather than a medical problem as such.

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I would say "widely spaced eyes".

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  • I'm not responsible for the down-vote, but I do find it remarkable if it is the case that an expression has not appeared in literature. One would have thought that an author such as Jane Austen, with her wealth of character description, would have had occasion to use such a term.
    – WS2
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 16:59
  • @WS2: I'm not sure what you're saying here.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 17:20
  • I guess I'm just saying that it is surprising that English has been around for 1500 years and no word meaning wide-spaced-eyes has ever arisen. Especially one would have expected one or other of our literary greats, so adept at personal description to have found something.
    – WS2
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 20:28
  • Oh right. So it's not a comment on my suggestion specifically. I wonder why somebody down-voted me.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 18:07

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