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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

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Etymology

Origin of explorer

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

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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

In the 1770s, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led an expedition of settlers into what would later become California, bringing donkeys and horses with him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

The Telegraph leads again on the pleas from the family of retired explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Department of Agriculture plant explorer Frank Meyer collected dozens of soybean varieties in China, many of which government researchers Charles Piper and William Morse planted at the department’s Arlington Experimental Farm in Virginia.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

Joabe Barbosa, a psychology doctoral student who holds the Guinness World Record for Chicago, said it lets him embrace his inner explorer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

“Leo will find us. He won’t give up. And he’s got Ryder. Ryder’s the best explorer of all.”

From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, 'Juice', is humankind's next bold mission to the outer Solar System.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

After testing it out, Hall said the couple “reluctantly” took on the Explorer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

No other employee was paid more than $5,000 from 2016 to 2024, according to FLAG’s federal filings, obtained through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026

Roberto Machuca, 32, had been a member of the department since 2019 and was also an advisor to the department’s Explorer program.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

“Drive carefully” was all Mia said, and Lexie bounced out, wallet in hand, and in a moment her Explorer revved outside.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Not especially keen swimmers, they used their mousing skills to secure passage on world-traveling ships piloted by merchants and explorers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

The missions will search for underground caves that could shelter astronauts, investigate hidden deposits of lunar ice, and monitor environmental hazards that could threaten future explorers.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

Not a very imaginative lot, those Spanish explorers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

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

Then, finally, on May 13, 1607, seventeen days after we first landed in Virginia, our explorers bring us the news we have been waiting for: They have chosen a place for us to settle.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

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