eyewitness
Americannoun
-
eyewitnesses
plural
verb (used with object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of eyewitness
Explanation
An eyewitness is an observer who's seen something clearly enough to describe it. If you're an eyewitness to a car accident, the police might want to ask you exactly what you saw. An eyewitness is valuable to crime investigators because she has seen the incident happen with her own eyes. You could also be an eyewitness to something less serious, like a boy being mean to his younger brother when he thinks no one is watching, or a woman throwing her soda can on the ground. While a witness may have valuable information about something, an eyewitness is even more important because he has actually seen — or witnessed — the event in question.
Vocabulary lists containing eyewitness
myPerspectives 9.3
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Ungifted
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Slave Trade" and "Abolition"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Travis, the getaway driver, did, however; his eyewitness account was arguably the most damaging.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
An eyewitness from the village of Verzeille recorded the tornado forming beneath a thunderstorm.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
“All the while, the hallmark of this case stared back at us: a flawed eyewitness identification procedure that never should have led to a conviction.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
This led to a deeper look into other factors contributing to wrongful convictions, including prosecutorial misconduct and mistaken eyewitness identifications, especially those made by witnesses with different racial backgrounds from the suspects.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
Hurd claimed he wasn’t involved, but an eyewitness identified him as having been near the scene and he was convicted by a jury.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
In Davis’s self-published memoir from 2019, he wrote, “I’m one of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s killing.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Some survivors of the deadly floods on the Nepal-China border ran for their lives, others narrowly missed disaster, but all were eyewitnesses to a major calamity and its aftermath.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Several eyewitnesses told Italian media that while Fakir appeared to be in distress he did not threaten anybody and was clearly unarmed.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
But ICE has provided no proof, and in Araujo’s case, eyewitnesses say the agency is lying about what happened.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
He had no clues or leads, no evidence or eyewitnesses.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
