What do you casually call glasses for shortsightedness and farsightedness?

We'd use plus/minus when talking about the strength of the prescription for the glasses, but otherwise they're all glasses. If you need them to see close things, they're occasionally called "reading glasses".

I’m sure there’s some sort of technical term that opticians use, but regular people just call them all glasses.

For farsightedness, they can be called readers or cheaters. I'm not aware of a name like that for glasses for nearsightedness. I just call them glasses Cheaters are specifically over-the-counter, non-prescription readers

Distance or reading. We mostly say long or short sighted though, describing the vision not the glasses.  UK

From the US: We don’t really differentiate between the types of eyeglasses that people have. The biggest thing would likely be reading glasses, which are mostly just for magnification, compared to prescription glasses. It’s probably more appropriate to ask someone if they are nearsighted or farsighted if that’s the information you’re trying to get

I've never heard anyone call them anything but "(eye)glasses" or "spectacles" if we're being overly formal. If you only need to glasses to read, they're "reading glasses" but otherwise glasses are glasses.

A note that "shortsightedness" has a different meaning than "nearsightedness". "Nearsightedness" is about vision. "Shortsightedness" is metaphorical, and describes a character trait. "He won the lottery a few years ago, but he made a lot of shortsighted purchases so now he has nothing. His shortsightedness has already made him poor again."

We don't differentiate between them casually, they're all just glasses. If you were to ask, it would be 'are you short-sighted or far-sighted?'

I call mine readers (close) and distance goggles (far away). I should really have bifocals but i am too cheap, consequently I NEVER have the correct spectacles for doing anything.

Glasses for normal wear. "Reading glasses" if you need the just for rewarding, usually when you get older. They come in packs at the drug store, not from a doctor. My parents also call these "cheaters". I don't know if that's idiomatic or a real word for them.

Myopia (near-sighted) and presbyopia (far-sighted) are more technical terms. People also wear glasses for astigmatism (defects in curvature of cornea) which can exist on its own or along with either myopia or presbyopia. And glasses can also be used to correct alignment issues with the use of prisms. Then there are bifocals. trifocals, or progressive lenses to deal with aging eye focus issues. Much simpler just to say I wear glasses.

US English: negative prescriptions are called distance vision glasses, while positive prescriptions are called reading glasses.

"Seeing" glasses and "Reading" glasses.

You ask are you nearsighted or farsighted

Reading glasses are the same as glasses for near-sighted people. They’re usually used only for reading and often (but not always) are bifocals (with only a small cutout actually being functional lenses and the larger area being plain for natural vision). I’m nearsighted and I don’t wear reading glasses, just regular glasses.

I’ve always said reading glasses and distance glasses to differentiate.

Do you mean glasses that address both issues? Because those are called bifocals. They have two different prescriptions per lens the top part of the lens does farsighted and the bottom does near sighted.

If you're farsighted, some people call those kind of glasses "readers" or "reading glasses". If you're both, they might be "bifocals" (there are also trifocals; I'm not really clear what the third one is). I've been nearsighted my whole life, so I'm not sure if farsighted people ever have to wear glasses all the time; if so, I'd imagine they wouldn't call them readers or reading glasses, as I think those terms are mean to indicate that they only need them for that purpose. Glasses for nearsighted people are just "glasses" as far as I know. I don't recall ever having heard another term for them. And, as others have noted, typically we just say we're near- or farsighted, with the emphasis on the person's condition rather than the kind of glasses they have.

Bifocals

Both? That would be “bifocals.”

I call them specs. I'm in the UK. I'd call them glasses if I was being a bit more formal, e.g. in an interview. If they're only used for reading, they're usually called reading glasses. If people ask, I just describe myself as short sighted (or long sighted). Like most people in the UK, I don't know what my actual prescription is. The optician deals with that. They do give us a paper with the numbers written on, but I never bother looking at it. I wouldn't know what it meant, anyway.

The technical terms for the conditions are: Myopic/Myopia for nearsightedness Hyperopic/hyperopia for farsightedness Presbyopic/presbyopia for when you need both (so like a progressive/bifocal lens or multifocal contacts) As far as the actual lens terms, it's usually not a distinction most people make outside of the actual optometrist when discussing single vision glasses, at least not in the US. Usually people just say they need glasses for either distance or reading, or both in cases of bifocals/progressives. I'd be willing to bet that the average glasses-wearer doesn't even know what the technical term for their type of vision is. In the U.S. we don't really use the term "short-sighted" to describe vision, we'd say "nearsighted". Short-sighted typically means someone who doesn't see the big picture or think long term, metaphorically.

Australian here. It's pretty much just glasses. If you k ow someone we'll you might ask why they have glasses and they'll tell you the reason. If they are o ly used for a particular purpose they'd have that added on the front. Reading glasses is a fairly common one, driving glasses is another.

In layman’s terms people will say things like, I need them for reading or screen work or distance i find mostly.

I just say “I’m nearsighted” or whatever, like nowadays, “oh they’re bifocals”

I can answer this, previous optical dispenser here! The technical terms are that glasses “negatively scripted” or “positively scripted” if you are not being super specific, but the super specific terms would be that the *lenses* (not glasses) are concavely or convexly spherical. In everyday English though, and how we communicate this to patients, it’s typical to just say “these glasses are for long/shortsightedness”

I would just say glasses (if for distance) and reading glasses if for reading. Or bifocals

English people call them reading and distance glasses if two different pairs. If combined they are usually described by the way they are made so bifocal (less common now) or varifocal.

For nearsighted, they're just glasses. For farsighted, they're "reading glasses", or just "readers". USA usage

Probably most people don't really care that much, and if they do care that much they should be able to tell by lens characteristics and don't need to ask. Btw the plus and minus measurements are in diopters.

A pair of reading glasses, especially if they are minor, and/or bought without a prescription, I would call "cheaters" as in, they're helping your eyes to cheat, and read better. I'm in the US and know of others that use that too.

I have both issues. I can’t read up close and I can’t see far away. My lenses are called progressive lenses as the gradual change the further down the lens I look. When I want to read I look through the bottom of the lens. Faraway I look straight ahead.

The + diopter glasses are called reading glasses. The - diopter ones are usually just called glasses.

just glasses really. no one would really know the kind of glasses

Personally I would distinguish between "glasses" (= worn continuously to correct vision in all situations, akin to contact lenses, regardless of whether + or - correction) and "reading glasses" (= usually carried around and only worn at specific times, typically to correct for farsightedness when reading). Note that reading glasses are definitely also glasses; my point is just that if I hear "glasses" without further context, I assume we're talking about general-purpose glasses. Regardless, I don't know of a specific term to distinguish + from -, aside from additional qualifiers to the word "glasses".

Corrective lenses.

they'll usually just say glasses, but to describe someone's sight/vision, one might say that they are shortsighted or longsighted (in the uk, I'm not sure what it is like outside the uk)

Others have addressed the title question directly, but I did want to point out that asking about the glasses themselves isn't particularly common or natural in English. This question would be phrased about the person, not the glasses in English. "Are you nearsighted or farsighted?"