Having chaired the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) Dry Eye Workshop (DEWS) II steering committee over the last 2.5 years, I witnessed firsthand the magnitude of the task we chose to undertake: to modernize the eye care community’s concepts and clinical practices surrounding this widespread yet poorly understood condition. The Workshop, comprised of 150 experts spanning 23 countries, reviewed thousands of published articles on dry eye disease (DED) to produce TFOS DEWS II, recently published in Ocular Surface. Coming a decade after the original TFOS DEWS report of 2007 and reflecting a body of scientific literature that had nearly doubled in that time alone, this new work—encompassing reports from 10 of the 12 TFOS subcommittees—updates the definition, classification and diagnostic methodology of dry eye disease; explores its causes, mechanisms and global impact; and offers an evidence-based consensus opinion on approaches to treatment.