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• explorer
  explorer

  noun

  a person or thing that explores.
• Explorer
  Explorer

  noun

  a member of the senior branch of the Scouts

explorer

American  

[ik-splawr-er] / ɪkˈsplɔr ər /

noun

explorers plural

1. a person or thing that explores.

2. a person who investigates unknown regions.

   the great explorers of the Renaissance.

3. any instrument used in exploring or sounding a wound, a cavity in a tooth, or the like.

4. Also called Explorer Scout.  (initial capital letter) a person between the ages 14 and 20 who is an active participant in the exploring program sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America.

5. (initial capital letter) one of a long series of U.S. scientific satellites: Explorer 1 (1958) was the first U.S. artificial satellite.

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Explorer ¹ British  

/ ɪkˈsplɔːrə /

noun

1. Brit equivalent: Venture Scout.  a member of the senior branch of the Scouts

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Explorer ² British  

/ ɪkˈsplɔːrə /

noun

1. any of the first series of US satellites. Explorer 1 , launched in 1958, confirmed the existence of intense radiation belts around the earth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• explorers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of explorer

First recorded in 1675–85; explore + -er ¹

Explanation

An explorer is a person who sets out to discover something by going somewhere unfamiliar. You might think Marco Polo is just a game to play in the pool, but Marco Polo was actually a famous explorer in the 13th century. In ancient Greece, the explorer Pytheas travelled to what is now Great Britain and Germany, and the Chinese explorer Wang Dayuan explored the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea in the second century BCE. More recently, explorers have voyaged to the moon and outer space. Before the late seventeenth century, this kind of adventurer was called an exploratour, from the Latin root explorare, "examine or investigate."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

explorer Explorer explorers

It would take 118 years for a spacecraft to travel far enough away to find it, based on estimates from the speed of Nasa’s New Horizons explorer.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 9, 2026

“In the 14th century A.D., a Moroccan explorer named Ibn Battuta documented that a buttery variation of khichuri was eaten daily in South Asia,” wrote Rachael Grow for Mashed.

From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026

And there are worlds of beauty, meaning and narrative to be read in the often-static imagery by which Mr. Diaz recounts the life and crimes of a 16th-century Portuguese explorer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

This docuseries was created by National Geographic explorer Bertie Gregory, a cinematographer for legendary nature filmmaker David Attenborough, who knows how to dazzle with close-up imagery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026

John Parry had been a handsome man, a brave and clever officer in the Royal Marines, who had left the army to become an explorer and lead expeditions to remote parts of the world.

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

As she drove past in her 2015 Ford Explorer, the dirt churned beyond her window.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

Another planned facility, Cosmic Explorer, is currently in the design phase in the United States.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026

The agency approached Hughes, the aerospace businessman, to build a massive deep-sea drill-ship called the Hughes Glomar Explorer, and paid him more than $350 million—billions in today’s money.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

Another woman in the lawsuits told The Times, “I want people to know that parents need to be more watchful of the police officer working in Explorer academies.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

Out in the driveway, she saw that Trip’s Jeep was gone, as was Lexie’s Explorer, and Moody’s bike, and, of course, her husband’s sedan.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

McGrath is part of a growing community of online urban explorers and has been back to the tunnels to photograph them and remember his grandad.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

Some explorers who have posted about the IBM site say they follow an observe-and-preserve ethos and reject vandalism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

It’s a tradition that dates back to 1886, and there have been over 200 such parades since then, celebrating great explorers, war heroes and champion athletes.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026

Specimens gathered by explorers generations ago continue to provide valuable scientific insights today, especially in remote regions where fieldwork remains difficult.

From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026

It is impossible to be in this high spinal country without giving thought to the first men who crossed it, the French explorers, the Lewis and Clark men.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck