noun
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a person who reports, esp one employed to gather news for a newspaper, news agency, or broadcasting organization
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a person, esp a barrister, authorized to write official accounts of judicial proceedings
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a person authorized to report the proceedings of a legislature
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social welfare an official who arranges and conducts children's panel hearings and who may investigate cases and decide on the action to be taken
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of reporter
1350–1400; Middle English reportour < Anglo-French ( Old French reporteur ). See report, -er 1
Explanation
A reporter is a journalist who goes out and gets the scoop on the news and informs the rest of us. If there’s a news conference or a train crash, a reporter is probably there getting the lowdown. If you want to be a reporter one day, you might study journalism in college, learning to write accurate and informative stories. Many reporters research, write, and edit articles about politics or current events, but you could also be a pop culture reporter or a tech reporter. The newspaper sense of reporter dates from 1798 — earlier it simply meant "one who gives an account."
Vocabulary lists containing reporter
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -er, -or
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Journalism Jargon
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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.
See Examples For:
I asked Joe, the Journal’s media and entertainment reporter based in the Los Angeles bureau, to put these cuts into context.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
“Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot,” an administration official texted an MS NOW reporter after Zacharia’s debut.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Lindsay Wise is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she covers Congress.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Investigations reporter NJ Convery has been out with police as they hunt for thieves.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
The newspaper reporter got it all wrong too.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
“As much as I love Sean, haven’t really thought of him too much,” Mike LaFleur told Arizona reporters this week, “and I’m sure he’s kind of feeling the same way about me right now.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
"It's a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it," he told reporters.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Trump told reporters Friday that he had seen her appearances on both Fox News shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Madgwick said the two undercover reporters campaigned with the party in Portsmouth in March and April.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Harry had acquired sixteen cats, but he didn’t take care of them; the most frequent comment that reporters and tourists had upon leaving the lodge was that it stank of cat urine.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
