intruder
Britishnoun
Explanation
An intruder is someone who enters a place or situation despite not being invited. If a Girl Scout comes to your door to sell you cookies but ends up trying to watch TV with you, you can call her an intruder. Some intruders are robbers who break into homes or businesses with the intent to steal things: "The intruder was charged with trespassing, and later was found to have stolen some jewelry and cash." Other intruders might instead invade someone's privacy. Intruder comes from the verb intrude, from the Latin root intrudere, "to thrust in," a combination of in- and trudere, "to thrust or to push."
Vocabulary lists containing intruder
Island of the Blue Dolphins
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"Fear" and "Violence Hits Home"
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"Time Trip: Sudan’s Civil War" and "Sudanese Tribes Confront Modern War"
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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.
K-pop star Nana helped overpower a home intruder and is recovering in hospital after suffering injuries during the tussle, South Korean police said on Sunday.
From Barron's • Nov. 16, 2025
In this case, authorities may be better off tracking the intruder all the way back to its pilot.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 18, 2025
It said speculation about the gorillas had led to more break-ins, with the animals suffering distress due to the triggering of its intruder alarms.
From BBC • Oct. 18, 2025
The adjuvant is a substance that activates the immune system to recognize the antigen, treat it as a foreign intruder and eliminate it.
From Science Daily • Oct. 13, 2025
I could tell he was looking me over, probably wondering who the hell I was, this intruder upon the sanctuary of English majors.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
