respondent
Americannoun
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respondents
plural
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a person who responds or makes reply.
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Law. a defendant, especially in appellate and divorce proceedings.
adjective
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giving a response; answering; responsive.
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Law. being a respondent.
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Psychology. of or relating to behavior that occurs consistently in response to a particular stimulus.
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Obsolete. corresponding.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of respondent
1520–30; < Latin respondent- (stem of respondēns ), present participle of respondēre. See respond, -ent
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."
Vocabulary lists containing respondent
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:
Millennial and Gen Z customers, one respondent said, were spending more money on their pets than older generations.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
It found nearly every respondent had used AI at some point, with personal use more common than for educational purposes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 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
“It was probably the ugliest environment that I’ve been in,” said one respondent.
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 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
And a 2021 Pew poll found that 78 percent of its respondents believe “there is some risk that an innocent person will be put to death.”
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2026
Some are offsetting costs by avoiding baggage fees, with 21% of respondents saying they switched to airlines that include baggage in fares and 29% opting to only bring a carry-on to avoid bag fees.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
In several surveys, only about one-quarter of respondents rate the economy as excellent or good, while about three-quarters say it is in fair or poor shape.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Since the early 1950s, the American National Election Studies has asked respondents whether they think of themselves as members of the working class.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
Arguably some respondents may have been telling pollsters what they thought was appropriate rather than what they actually believed, but there is no reason to believe that most of them were lying.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
