Binoculars are a pair of small telescopes joined together that you hold up to your eyes to see distant things more clearly. When you look through binoculars at a bird in a faraway tree or a player on a distant baseball field, they use special lenses to magnify what you're seeing, making it appear much closer than it actually is.

Unlike a telescope, which you typically look through with one eye, binoculars let you use both eyes at once, which feels more natural and helps you judge distances better. Bird watchers carry binoculars to spot details on birds high in trees. People at sporting events use them to see plays clearly from seats far from the field. Sailors use powerful binoculars to scan the horizon for land or other ships.

Most binoculars have numbers on them like “7x35” or “10x50.” The first number tells you how many times larger things appear (7x means seven times bigger), while the second describes how much light the lenses can gather. When you turn the focus wheel, the sharper the image becomes.

The word binocular (without the s) works as an adjective meaning “using both eyes together,” like binocular vision, which is what helps you see in three dimensions and catch a ball successfully.