spectator
Americannoun
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a person who looks on or watches; onlooker; observer.
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a person who is present at and views a spectacle, display, or the like; member of an audience.
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Also called spectator shoe. a white shoe with a perforated wing tip and back trim, traditionally of dark brown, dark blue, or black but sometimes of a lighter color.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of spectator
1580–90; < Latin spectātor, equivalent to spectā ( re ), frequentative of specere to look, regard + -tor -tor
Explanation
If you're watching something, you're a spectator. Football stadiums and circus tents are full of spectators. The spectator is a particular kind of viewer; unlike a witness or an onlooker, they usually have chosen intentionally to regard the spectacle before them. Usually the word spectator refers to people watching games or "spectator sports," but you could be a spectator at any planned event. An easy way to remember this word is to think of spectacles, glasses used to view something clearly — both from the same Latin root spectare.
Vocabulary lists containing spectator
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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:
For years I’ve called the Herndon Climb America’s next great spectator sport.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
A spectator in his mid-teens has died in an accident at the Donegal International Rally on Saturday and the remainder of the event has been cancelled.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
"Film is an act of truthfulness, not happening on the screen but in the heart and in the guts of the spectator," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
But maybe it can also be an exorcism: Tracy Morgan wasn’t the only spectator who likened the unadulterated glee lighting up the city to the final scene in “Ghostbusters.”
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
I saw my life as a spectator would, from outside, from a distance so remote that I couldn’t feel any of it.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
A total of 37,846 spectators attended the match across four days, the highest cumulative attendance for a women's Test.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Wildfires raged across southern Europe on Sunday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and prompting Tour de France officials to ban spectators from a stage of the race.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
In France, officials announced that Monday's third stage of the Tour de France cycling race through the Pyrenees would take place without spectators who normally line the routes of the storied competition.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
He pushes past marching bands with their instruments held high and parade spectators decked out in red, white and blue regalia.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
For two days, in a congressional hearing room packed with spectators and news reporters, as flashbulbs went off and news cameras whirred, Elizabeth Bentley revealed the sensational details of her spying for the Soviet Union.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
