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
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.
An elderly spectator was booted from the nearby overflow room one day for snapping a souvenir photo, protesting as he was led away by marshals that he had arrived hours early to get his spot.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 16, 2026
But it gave viewers some sense of what players, pitchers and umpires were figuring out in real time: What counts as a ball and a strike in the most subjective of all spectator sports?
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026
In the past two years, spending on live events, excluding spectator sports, has shot up by $10 billion to a total of $60 billion.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026
Other significant improvements such as enhanced spectator facilities will be included in the refurbishment.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
But with it, he wears a scarf in a brilliant scarlet, to distinguish himself from it as well, as a reminder that he is at heart a spectator, an observer.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
