stalker

American  

[staw-ker] / ˈstɔ kər /

noun

stalkers plural

1. a person who pursues game, prey, or a person stealthily.

2. a person who harasses another person, as a former lover, a famous person, etc., in an aggressive, often threatening and illegal manner.

   Hollywood stars often have security guards to keep dangerous stalkers at bay.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• stalkers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of stalker

stalk ² (verb) + -er ¹

Explanation

You might joke about your neighborhood stalker who always seems to know where you've been and what time you get home from work every day, but it can actually be a little creepy to know that someone's watching you. A stalker can describe anyone who sneaks around, but it usually means a person who follows one specific individual obsessively. The word wasn't used this way until the early 1990s. Before that, it was mostly used interchangeably with "poacher" to mean "someone who pursues and steals game animals." The Old English word stelan lead to the English word steal, which is most likely the root of stalk.

Example Sentences

“We get a drone, we train on it…then we get a new drone, train on it, test it out,” said the 20-year-old, who learned to fly the Stalker less than a month earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2025

The Army Corps of Engineers is “conducting controlled water releases” from the two dams, said Tyler Stalker, a spokesperson for the Corps in Sacramento.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2025

Evgeniy feels the same applies to Stalker 2.

From BBC • Oct. 3, 2024

The original Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, was set on an alternative timeline where a second nuclear disaster had struck, creating an array of mutant creatures and other unnatural phenomena.

From BBC • Oct. 3, 2024

Afterwards, when grown a big boy, I had a few lessons from Mr. Stalker of Edinburgh, and finally from the Rev. Mr. Cleeve.

From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) by Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)