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
- spectatorial adjective
Etymology
Origin of spectator
1580–90; < Latin spectātor, equivalent to spectā ( re ), frequentative of specere to look, regard + -tor -tor
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.
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
As directors Hernandez and Lazarte seem well aware, there’s a reason the PBA doesn’t operate the largest spectator sport in the country.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
Messi, who was brought on as a half-time substitute, was wrestled to the turf by a spectator with two minutes remaining of normal time.
From BBC • Feb. 27, 2026
With each manicured frame and deceptively poignant observation on the impossibility of living normally in modern life, Kramer concocts an original, wonderfully empathetic study of the desire to play spectator to a world on fire.
From Salon • Feb. 18, 2026
When it became abundantly clear that I hadn’t inherited a shred of his athletic talents, he settled for trying to turn me into a passionate spectator.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
