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.
Mr. Park’s ardent tenor brilliantly evokes the Stranger’s position as an intruder in this world as he insists, “Isn’t reality itself a kind of dream?”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
South Korean actor and K-pop singer Nana managed to fight off a home intruder alongside her mother, local media reported.
From BBC • Nov. 16, 2025
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
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
His heart was thumping so hard, he was afraid the intruder might hear it.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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.
