responder

American  

[ri-spon-der] / rɪˈspɒn dər /

noun

1. a person or thing that responds.

2. Electronics. the part of a transponder that transmits the reply.

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Etymology

Origin of responder

First recorded in 1875–80; respond + -er ¹

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Explanation

A responder is someone who answers a question or who acts quickly in response to some event. If there's only one responder to all of your teacher's questions, he'll start calling on other students to answer as well. Anyone who responds, or reacts, in some way is a responder, whether their responses are spoken, sung, or acted out physically. You're likely to find this word in the context of "first responders," a term that's used for police officers, firefighters, EMTs, or anyone else whose job puts them among the people who help in an emergency or disaster.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

responder

David Hsu, CEO of Retool, a San Francisco-based enterprise software company, recounted how someone at his office decided to set up an Out-of-Office responder for emails.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

An automatic out-of-office responder one employee at an unnamed company built with AI that turned out to cost $10,000 a day, Hsu said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

A first responder told the BBC they had never seen such a disaster in Coron, calling it "really heartbreaking".

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

Foithong Choenyim, a volunteer first responder who said his daughter was a seventh-grader at Debsirin Nonthaburi School, told local media that he rushed to the school to help the injured.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

I had done rescue breathing in my first responder course exactly once, and that was on a mannequin.

From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin

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