Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Peek for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Peek" — a verb, pronounced /piːk/, with the stress on "peek", the single syllable.
Narrator: To peek is to look quickly, briefly or secretly at something, often from a hidden position.
Narrator: In plain English, it means to sneak a fast little look when you are not quite supposed to, or when you cannot wait.
Narrator: The word appeared in Middle English as piken, meaning to peer or glance, and has kept its small, furtive feel ever since.
Narrator: A common collocation is to peek through the curtains, which describes glancing out without being seen from the street.
Narrator: It differs from stare, because a stare is long, fixed and open, while a peek is short, quiet and usually hidden.
Narrator: As a noun it gives us a sneak peek, an early glimpse of a film, a product or a feature before its public release.
Narrator: Software design, marketing, publishing and user interface work all rely on the word, especially for preview screens and password reveal buttons.
Narrator: So remember: to peek is to take a quick, quiet look, and a sneak peek is a small taste of what is coming.
Speaker A: Why do we say sneak peek rather than sneak look?
Speaker B: Because PEEK, from Middle English piken, already carries that sense of a brief, half-hidden glance, so it fits a teaser perfectly.
Speaker A: So the secrecy is built into the word itself?
Speaker B: Exactly so, and that is why marketing teams adore it for early previews.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "She peeked around the door to see if the meeting had ended", meaning a quick hidden glance. "Tap the eye icon to peek at your password", meaning a brief reveal. "The studio released a sneak peek of the new season", meaning an early glimpse.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Do not confuse peek with peak, a mountain top, or pique, to provoke; a sneak peak is one of the most frequent spelling errors in English.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Glance is the polite cousin, glimpse is the near twin, and peep is the cheeky alternative, but peek keeps its playful, curtain-twitching charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "peek" in AI prompts — useful for building password reveal controls and designing product preview pages.
Speaker A: How does it apply to a login form?
Speaker B: Ask for the classic reveal toggle.
Prompt: Write an accessible password field in React with a peek button that briefly reveals the typed characters and announces the state change to screen readers.
Speaker A: And for marketing pages?
Speaker B: Use it for an early preview section.
Prompt: Generate responsive HTML and CSS for a sneak peek section that teases three upcoming features with images, short captions and a sign up call to action.
Speaker A: What about a data tool?
Speaker B: Let users peek at a file before loading it fully.
Prompt: Write a Python function that peeks at the first twenty rows of a large CSV file without loading the whole file into memory and prints a column summary.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Let's cover copy quality control.
Prompt: Scan our website copy for confusions between peek, peak and pique, and return each error with its sentence and a corrected version.
Peek — meaning in Arabic & definition More P courses GL Dictionary