observer
Americannoun
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someone or something that observes.
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a delegate to an assembly or gathering, who is sent to observe and report but not to take part officially in its activities.
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U.S. Air Force.
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a member of an aircrew, other than the pilot, holding an aeronautical rating.
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a person who maintains observation in an aircraft during flight.
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Also called air observer,. Also called aircraft observer. U.S. Army. a person who serves in an aircraft as a reconnoiterer and directs artillery fire.
noun
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a person or thing that observes
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a person who attends a conference solely to note the proceedings
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a person trained to identify aircraft, esp, formerly, a member of an aircrew
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of observer
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
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:
As one local observer puts it: "These are not acts of fate. They are the predictable consequences of systemic negligence."
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
In that scenario, a hypothetical observer selectively sorts hot and cold particles, apparently reducing entropy and challenging the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy naturally increases or remains constant.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
But, as another longtime observer of Collins in Maine politics put it to me, Collins “has a remarkable way of using ‘I’ more than ‘we’ in statements.”
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
"If you electrify and you increase coal, then what are you doing?" veteran COP observer and E3G analyst Alden Meyer told AFP in Bonn.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
So one has a set of events, a region of space-time, from which it is not possible to escape to reach a distant observer.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
Close observers expect them to release it soon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Keegan was regarded by some observers as simply a hard-working player who made himself great through sheer grit and determination.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
While some observers are betting on another hike in September after rate-setters return from the summer break, others say the outlook is more uncertain.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
The U.S. is experiencing an impressive stretch of low unemployment, which gives the labor market a rosy hue to outside observers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
The observers were looking at the students’ most personal belongings, and our personal belongings contain a wealth of very telling information.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
