eyewitness

American  

[ahy-wit-nis, ahy-wit-nis, ahy-wit-nis] / ˈaɪˌwɪt nɪs, ˈaɪˈwɪt nɪs, ˈaɪˌwɪt nɪs /

noun

• eyewitnesses
  plural

1. a person who actually sees some act, occurrence, or thing and can give a firsthand account of it.

   There were two eyewitnesses to the murder.

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verb (used with object)

1. to view with one's own eyes.

   to eyewitness a murder.

eyewitness British  

/ ˈaɪˌwɪtnɪs /

noun

1. 1. a person present at an event who can describe what happened

   2. ( as modifier )

      an eyewitness account

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• eyewitnesses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of eyewitness

First recorded in 1530–40; eye + witness

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

eyewitness eyewitnesses

No statements were obtained from three other witnesses, including a potential eyewitness.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

Miles also presented scientific studies on the flaws of eyewitness identifications, and collected DNA evidence didn’t match him, according to the Innocence Center.

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

I’ve been an eyewitness to lost specimens turning up in a museum when a colleague spotted a dinosaur skull and pterosaur skeleton sitting on the wrong shelf like misplaced library books.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

After the fact, eyewitness testimony became a form of virtual witnessing, hence Boyle’s insistence that he did not appeal ‘to other Writers as to Judges, but as to Witnesses’.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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

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

Flock’s ability to identify vehicles without a plate propelled its growth, Weinstein said, because police value searching for other details eyewitnesses typically recall.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

They further said that An’s claims are supported by affidavits and written communications from multiple eyewitnesses, including La Roux.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

It didn’t matter what eyewitnesses saw, or that the newspapers reported the next day that the Cadillac was part of the ten-car pileup on the bridge.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Related Words

• bystander
• observer
• witness