beholder
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of beholder
Explanation
A beholder is an observer: someone who gains awareness of things through the senses, especially sight. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the person who is observing gets to decide what is beautiful. A common saying is "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," which means beauty doesn't exist on its own but is created by observers. That famous quote can help you remember that a beholder is someone who sees or otherwise experiences things, becoming aware of them. To be a beholder, you have to pay attention. Different beholders might take in different aspects of the same event, like witnesses to a crime.
Vocabulary lists containing beholder
The Devil in the White City
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A Wizard of Earthsea
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Wishtree
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bot Beholder: Morgan Stanley just got its first chief robot strategist.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026
Among Hughes’ other notable horses were Action This Day, the 2003 BC Juvenile winner and 2-year-old champion; and Beholder, one of three female horses in history to be a four-time Eclipse champion.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2021
Ariana Grande entered The Twilight Zone this year, recreating what can only be described as a pig-ish face from "Eye of the Beholder", an episode from the series that originally aired in 1960.
From BBC • Nov. 1, 2019
The race was one of the more evenly matched given the stretch of dominant horses that ran the race the previous five years: Accelerate, Arrogate, California Chrome, Beholder and Shared Belief.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2019
It comes up out of the distance and goes down into the distance again, and it is named Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean.
From A Dreamer's Tales by Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Baron
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
