intruder
Britishnoun
Explanation
An intruder is someone who enters a place or situation despite not being invited. If a Girl Scout comes to your door to sell you cookies but ends up trying to watch TV with you, you can call her an intruder. Some intruders are robbers who break into homes or businesses with the intent to steal things: "The intruder was charged with trespassing, and later was found to have stolen some jewelry and cash." Other intruders might instead invade someone's privacy. Intruder comes from the verb intrude, from the Latin root intrudere, "to thrust in," a combination of in- and trudere, "to thrust or to push."
Vocabulary lists containing intruder
Island of the Blue Dolphins
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"Fear" and "Violence Hits Home"
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"Time Trip: Sudan’s Civil War" and "Sudanese Tribes Confront Modern War"
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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.
Window reflections have been misconstrued as a possible intruder and a tornado.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
During the summer of 2018, when Stormy was still a nestling, “an adult male intruder showed up to the nest and with great tenacity, refused to leave,” wrote Friends of Big Bear Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Prosecutors sought a week's jail for Wen, arguing that he was a "serial intruder" who publicised his behaviour to gain popularity online.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
K-pop star Nana helped overpower a home intruder and is recovering in hospital after suffering injuries during the tussle, South Korean police said on Sunday.
From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025
Hidden away as they are in the bowels of the earth, to protect them from the casual intruder, they must have been considered far more serious than decoration.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
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.
