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:
Radio signals traveling between planets should exhibit measurable Doppler shifts as the source and observer move relative to one another.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 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
And by the reckoning of one observer, the mortality carried off three out of every four inhabitants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Nature observer and broadcaster Iolo Williams was on a wildlife cruise filming Springwatch when he heard about the sighting.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
As she stood in the nursery waiting for her cousins’ return she sensed she could write a scene like the one by the fountain and she could include a hidden observer like herself.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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
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
A notable increase in Mexican Americans venturing south to reconnect with their roots, language and culture, according to longtime observers and travel figures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
But we can’t be passive observers of a revolution that will reshape every dimension of human life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Instead, each observer would have his own measure of time as recorded by a clock that he carried: clocks carried by different observers would not necessarily agree.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
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.
