observer

American  

[uhb-zur-ver] / əbˈzɜr vər /

noun

• observers
  plural

1. someone or something that observes.

2. a delegate to an assembly or gathering, who is sent to observe and report but not to take part officially in its activities.

3. U.S. Air Force.

   1. a member of an aircrew, other than the pilot, holding an aeronautical rating.

   2. a person who maintains observation in an aircraft during flight.

4. Also called air observer, aircraft observer. U.S. Army. a person who serves in an aircraft as a reconnoiterer and directs artillery fire.

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observer British  

/ əbˈzɜːvə /

noun

1. a person or thing that observes

2. a person who attends a conference solely to note the proceedings

3. a person trained to identify aircraft, esp, formerly, a member of an aircrew

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interobserver
  noun
• observership
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• observers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of observer

First recorded in 1545–55; observe + -er ¹

Explanation

An observer is someone who watches or pays attention to something — if you're an observer of current events, you probably watch the news and read the newspaper every day to keep up with what's going on. You can be an accidental observer of something, like pedestrians who happen to witness an accident and become observers of it. Another kind of observer is one who notices things deliberately, like political observers who watch and comment on various events. Many newspapers once had the word observer in their names, from this second sense of the word. The verb observe has a Latin root, observare, which means "watch over, note, heed, or attend to."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

observer observers

David Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, resigned in protest as a board observer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

If you want to find an observer singing from the same hymn sheet, sooner or later you will hit pay dirt.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Certain obvious questions arise from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington this past week, a spectacle that one observer has described as “diplotainment” rather than actual diplomacy.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026

From the viewpoint of a stationary observer on Earth, diffusely scattered light begins to be directed forward, toward the direction in which the sail is traveling.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 2, 2026

But as I dealt with what was happening to me by becoming more and more the detached observer, I was becoming Mersault, the character, and not Camus, the author.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

He had never before run for the presidency and surprised observers by finishing ahead of the 80-year-old president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

Or from the time it put Baumgartner, in character as Kevin Malone, inside a see-through box in Flatiron Plaza and livestreamed his “workday” to thousands of both in-person and virtual observers.

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2026

Among professionals in any field, Ms. Margolles is one of the keenest observers of the politics and social climate surrounding the border.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

You come from what many observers would call the party’s more traditional wing.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026

At the halfway point, he was an eighth of a mile ahead, and observers began speculating on when the boy in the black shorts was going to collapse.

From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

Related Words

• bystander
• onlooker
• viewer
• watcher
• witness