respondent

American  

[ri-spon-duhnt] / rɪˈspɒn dənt /

noun

• respondents
  plural

1. a person who responds or makes reply.

2. Law. a defendant, especially in appellate and divorce proceedings.

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adjective

1. giving a response; answering; responsive.

2. Law. being a respondent.

3. Psychology. of or relating to behavior that occurs consistently in response to a particular stimulus.

4. Obsolete. corresponding.

respondent British  

/ rɪˈspɒndənt /

noun

1. law a person against whom a petition, esp in a divorce suit, or appeal is brought

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adjective

1. a less common word for responsive

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• respondents
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of respondent

1520–30; < Latin respondent- (stem of respondēns ), present participle of respondēre. See respond, -ent

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Explanation

A respondent is a person who gives an answer. For example, on some Monday mornings, your teacher might feel like she is talking to the walls — although she asks questions, none of the sleepy students are willing respondents. A respondent is a person who answers a question, letter, email message, survey, or anything else that requires a response. You can see the word respond, which means "answer or reply to" in respondent. If a poll reveals that bullying is the top concern regarding school safety, you know that many respondents checked the box marked "bullying."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

respondent respondents

“I’ve never questioned my longevity until recently. I never thought about my store not being a store,” said one respondent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Millennial and Gen Z customers, one respondent said, were spending more money on their pets than older generations.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

One survey respondent said economic activity is challenging this year.

From Barron's ● Mar. 2, 2026

“Due to the tariffs, most raw materials used in manufacturing, such as steel and wire, need to be sourced domestically, and the cost keeps going up,” said a respondent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026

CO-RESPONDENT, in law, generally, a person made respondent to, or called upon to answer, along with another or others, a petition or other proceeding.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" by Various

A summer survey from the Guardian showed a staggering 95% of respondents think the US is in an affordability crisis.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

And one poll, carried out by Ipsos-BVA and published on Sunday, said 54 percent of respondents backed the high school student protests.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

Asked to assign a letter grade to Kevin Warsh, who became chairman of the Fed in May, 36% of respondents said it was too early.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

In a poll on the BBC Sport website, 95% of respondents voted that tickets for the 2027 Ashes were too expensive.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

In the summer of 2006, poll respondents filling out open-ended questionnaires were naming him as a presidential possibility, though Hillary Clinton was decidedly the number one pick.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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Related Words

• defendant
• prisoner

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