"what you see is what you get" meaning in English

See what you see is what you get in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Audio: En-au-what you see is what you get.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Originally a humorous allusion to a catchphrase popularized by comedian Flip Wilson on US TV in the 1960s. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} what you see is what you get
  1. The image corresponds to the reality.
    Sense id: en-what_you_see_is_what_you_get-en-proverb-PjB3YJaC
  2. (idiomatic, computing) The screen image resembles the printed output. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Computing Translations ((idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output): 所見即所得 (Chinese Mandarin), 所见即所得 (suǒjiàn jí suǒdé) (Chinese Mandarin), WYSIWYG (Finnish), näet mitä saat (Finnish), ce que tu vois est ce que tu obtiens (French), was du siehst, ist was du bekommst (German), ό,τι βλέπεις, παίρνεις (ó,ti vlépeis, paírneis) (Greek), 見たままが得られる (mita mama ga erareru) (Japanese), что ви́дишь, то и полу́чишь (što vídišʹ, to i polúčišʹ) (Russian), lo que ves es lo que obtienes (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-what_you_see_is_what_you_get-en-proverb-PuycEYkV Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences Disambiguation of '(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output': 6 94
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: WYSIWYG, what-you-see-is-what-you-get

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for what you see is what you get meaning in English (4.0kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Originally a humorous allusion to a catchphrase popularized by comedian Flip Wilson on US TV in the 1960s.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar",
          "text": "What you see is what you get. No one's been disappointed yet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001-06-23, Sonic Team USA, Sonic Adventure 2, Sega, published 2001",
          "text": "Sonic: What you see is what you get! Just a guy that loves adventure! I’m Sonic the Hedgehog!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The image corresponds to the reality."
      ],
      "id": "en-what_you_see_is_what_you_get-en-proverb-PjB3YJaC",
      "links": [
        [
          "image",
          "image"
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          "reality",
          "reality"
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    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1983, Byte, volume 8, page 86",
          "text": "For:Word, like Wang's editing system, is an early approach to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processor.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The screen image resembles the printed output."
      ],
      "id": "en-what_you_see_is_what_you_get-en-proverb-PuycEYkV",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, computing) The screen image resembles the printed output."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "所見即所得"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "suǒjiàn jí suǒdé",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "所见即所得"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "WYSIWYG"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "näet mitä saat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "ce que tu vois est ce que tu obtiens"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "was du siehst, ist was du bekommst"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "ó,ti vlépeis, paírneis",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "ό,τι βλέπεις, παίρνεις"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "mita mama ga erareru",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "見たままが得られる"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "što vídišʹ, to i polúčišʹ",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "что ви́дишь, то и полу́чишь"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
          "word": "lo que ves es lo que obtienes"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-what you see is what you get.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/37/En-au-what_you_see_is_what_you_get.ogg/En-au-what_you_see_is_what_you_get.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/En-au-what_you_see_is_what_you_get.ogg",
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "WYSIWYG"
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "what-you-see-is-what-you-get"
    }
  ],
  "word": "what you see is what you get"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Originally a humorous allusion to a catchphrase popularized by comedian Flip Wilson on US TV in the 1960s.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar",
          "text": "What you see is what you get. No one's been disappointed yet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001-06-23, Sonic Team USA, Sonic Adventure 2, Sega, published 2001",
          "text": "Sonic: What you see is what you get! Just a guy that loves adventure! I’m Sonic the Hedgehog!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The image corresponds to the reality."
      ],
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          "image"
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          "ref": "1983, Byte, volume 8, page 86",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The screen image resembles the printed output."
      ],
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        "(idiomatic, computing) The screen image resembles the printed output."
      ],
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        "idiomatic"
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        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/En-au-what_you_see_is_what_you_get.ogg",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "word": "WYSIWYG"
    },
    {
      "word": "what-you-see-is-what-you-get"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "所見即所得"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "suǒjiàn jí suǒdé",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "所见即所得"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "WYSIWYG"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "näet mitä saat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "ce que tu vois est ce que tu obtiens"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "was du siehst, ist was du bekommst"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "ó,ti vlépeis, paírneis",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "ό,τι βλέπεις, παίρνεις"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "mita mama ga erareru",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "見たままが得られる"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "što vídišʹ, to i polúčišʹ",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "что ви́дишь, то и полу́чишь"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "(idiomatic, computing) the screen image resembles the printed output",
      "word": "lo que ves es lo que obtienes"
    }
  ],
  "word": "what you see is what you get"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.