observer
Americannoun
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someone or something that observes.
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a delegate to an assembly or gathering, who is sent to observe and report but not to take part officially in its activities.
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U.S. Air Force.
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a member of an aircrew, other than the pilot, holding an aeronautical rating.
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a person who maintains observation in an aircraft during flight.
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Also called air observer,. Also called aircraft observer. U.S. Army. a person who serves in an aircraft as a reconnoiterer and directs artillery fire.
noun
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a person or thing that observes
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a person who attends a conference solely to note the proceedings
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a person trained to identify aircraft, esp, formerly, a member of an aircrew
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of observer
Explanation
An observer is someone who watches or pays attention to something — if you're an observer of current events, you probably watch the news and read the newspaper every day to keep up with what's going on. You can be an accidental observer of something, like pedestrians who happen to witness an accident and become observers of it. Another kind of observer is one who notices things deliberately, like political observers who watch and comment on various events. Many newspapers once had the word observer in their names, from this second sense of the word. The verb observe has a Latin root, observare, which means "watch over, note, heed, or attend to."
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.
See Examples For:
The reader is an outside observer and learns about things in a realistic manner.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
Teesha Sreeram, the student observer to the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, urged the university to keep its focus on access.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Canada on Tuesday joined the project as an "observer", paving the way for it to become a full member.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Radio signals traveling between planets should exhibit measurable Doppler shifts as the source and observer move relative to one another.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
The explosion transformed him from lecturer to observer.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
The first warning came last January when Chinese open-source AI model DeepSeek, then unknown outside industry circles, shocked observers with its performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
That is the popular constitutional contest the whistles, warnings, carpools, legal observers, and barricades made visible.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Future observers will live in a universe that appears far smaller and emptier than the one we can see today.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
Some observers say he's been more strident in pushing for UN reform, and believes the UN secretary-general should take a more hands-on approach.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
At the meeting between myself and the Eminent Persons Group, we were joined by two significant observers: Kobie Coetsee and Lieutenant General W. H. Willemse, the commissioner of prisons.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
