spectator
Americannoun
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spectators
plural
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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:
A swarming Spanish defense made him little more than a spectator for most of the match.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Any other spectator would have had to just deal with it, but Austin wasn’t just any other spectator.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
You are not a spectator to American democracy, and you are not a passive recipient of American constitutional meaning.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2026
A steward uses a handheld fan to cool down a spectator at the tennis at Wimbledon.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
What the dreamer was experiencing, she experienced, and not as some hapless spectator.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
But some spectators were left disappointed, telling the BBC they couldn't actually see any cars go by.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
As is common throughout the NFL, lots of Chargers starters were merely spectators for the second of three preseason games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The risk of smashups heightens the excitement at more than a dozen docking events around the bay, which can pull in several thousand spectators.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The ATP later issued a suspended 16-week ban for a "pattern of behaviour related to his verbal abuse of officials and/or spectators" over the previous 12 months.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Bobby, Bisguier, and about twenty other players and spectators stood around the tournament director’s desk as he applied the tie-breaking system to determine the winner.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
