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
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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:
Travis, the getaway driver, did, however; his eyewitness account was arguably the most damaging.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Community groups on Facebook are filled with eyewitness reports of crimes taking place almost daily, fuelling anger and questions about why no-one seems to be able to put to a stop to it.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
The system, though more reliable than the average eyewitness, isn’t perfect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
An eyewitness from the village of Verzeille recorded the tornado forming beneath a thunderstorm.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Look, there was one alleged eyewitness to this killing.
From "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose
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
After an interim CEO was appointed, OpenAI executives learned from multiple eyewitnesses that Aschenbrenner had appeared to welcome Altman’s replacement, according to the people familiar with the matter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 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
The defence highlighted perceived shortcomings in scene management, potential contamination of DNA evidence and that eyewitnesses failed to identify Mr Fox as being involved in the raid.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
“We’re eyewitnesses, right? I think we should try to solve the case ourselves!”
From "Trouble at the Arcade (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #1)" by Franklin W. Dixon
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.
