attendee
Americannoun
-
attendees
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of attendee
Explanation
An attendee is a person who shows up at an event or meeting. If you go to your family reunion every summer, you can say you're a regular attendee. Conferences, conventions, and other gatherings need to have attendees so they can proceed as planned. You might be a French club attendee at school or a regular town bike swap attendee. The original word for attendee was attender, but its meaning came to be "someone who waits on others," while attendee, as of the mid-20th century, was "someone who attends."
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:
“These are my weird people,” said Sass Taft, a Boston resident and first-time attendee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
The attendee, who has not been identified, was taken to the festival’s on-site emergency care center where he was pronounced dead, the Burning Man Project said in a Thursday statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
We do not know whether the man was a party supporter, a member or merely an attendee.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Four-time World Cup attendee Epitácio Miranda said this year’s tournament has been the hardest to manage yet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
One of the event’s coordinators let her know that “her greatest fan,” a fellow attendee, wanted to meet her.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
All of these attendees were following the example set by those at the top: looking out for themselves and trying to swell their own stash.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Neiden says many attendees try to break the show itself, to push back and see how far its narrative can bend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The rest of the attendees will stay in hotels.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Kalshi, which dragged the hermetic Pete Sampras out for a weird ad, actually had its name on another video goofing on attendees who didn’t know basic stuff about tennis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
He suggested that the combined resources of the attendees, using their clout to access research, publicity, and people with money, could be marshaled to defeat the worldwide menace of TB, one project at a time.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
