English Dictionary

OBSERVER

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does observer mean? 

OBSERVER (noun)
  The noun OBSERVER has 2 senses:

1. a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the sensesplay

2. an expert who observes and comments on somethingplay

  Familiarity information: OBSERVER used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


OBSERVER (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient

Hypernyms ("observer" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "observer"):

eyeglass wearer (a person who wears spectacles in order to see better)

discoverer; finder; spotter (someone who is the first to observe something)

attender; auditor; hearer; listener (someone who listens attentively)

audile (one whose mental imagery is auditory rather than visual or motor)

motile (one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action)

noticer (someone who takes notice)

seer (an observer who perceives visually)

looker; spectator; viewer; watcher; witness (a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind))

visualiser; visualizer (one whose prevailing mental imagery is visual)

informant; witness; witnesser (someone who sees an event and reports what happened)

Derivation:

observe (observe with care or pay close attention to)

observe (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)

observe (follow with the eyes or the mind)


Sense 2

Meaning:

An expert who observes and comments on something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

commentator; observer

Hypernyms ("observer" is a kind of...):

expert (a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "observer"):

annotator (a commentator who writes notes to a text)

Derivation:

observe (make mention of)


 Context examples 


Organizational role of human observer for the context of the current observation.

(Person Observer Role in Organization, NCI Thesaurus/DICOM)

Since then, observers around the world have been tracking the object as it approaches Earth and reporting their observations to the Minor Planet Center.

(Asteroid Tracking Network Observes Close Approach, NASA)

The source, known as CK Vulpeculae, was first seen in 1670 and at the time it appeared to observers as a bright, red “new star”.

(Stellar Corpse Reveals Origin of Radioactive Molecules, ESO)

This had stood him in good stead a thousand times and trained him as an observer as well.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The ladies are great observers, sir?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Cassini and observers on Earth tracked the most recent of these storms from December 2010 to August 2011.

(Study Explains Saturn's Epic Tantrums, NASA)

An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope.

(Cassini's Final View of Titan's Northern Lakes and Seas, NASA)

It was felt that the Heaf test was easier to interpret, with less inter-observer variability, and that less training was required to administer and to read the test.

(Heaf Tuberculin Skin Test, NCI Thesaurus)

An indication of the organizational role of a human observer.

(Person Observer Role in Organization, NCI Thesaurus)

An indication of the procedural role of a human observer.

(Person Observer Role in Procedure, NCI Thesaurus)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"The pitcher goes so often to the well that it comes home broken at last." (English proverb)

"Can you live with the heart of a rabbit?" (Albanian proverb)

"Heard the question wrong, answered wrong." (Arabic proverb)

"High trees catch lots of wind." (Dutch proverb)



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