eyewitness
Americannoun
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
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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:
An eyewitness near the main Pride stage at Brandenburg Gate told AFP that celebrations abruptly ended when police instructed people to leave.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
"An eyewitness account of about 20 'geese' taking flight and heading toward the river just minutes before a loud bang was heard corroborates geese in the area shortly before the crash."
From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026
I was fortunate to be an eyewitness, and a participant of sorts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
An eyewitness told the Daily Tribune newspaper that she heard a loud rumbling moments before the collapse.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
Like the other slaves, Harriet knew the story as accurately and as completely as though she had been an eyewitness to the event.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
Videos shared by eyewitnesses showed the bus badly damaged, as local residents rushed to help the injured children.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 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
While prosecutors contend Rinderknecht started the fire by burning some vegetation, they were unable to present any evidence proving how the fire started or an eyewitnesses who saw the 30-year-old do it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
“All the reports have been signed. All accounts taken, all eyewitnesses questioned. It’s all there.”
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
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.
