observer
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who makes observations, monitors or takes notice.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhbzurverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əbˈzɝvɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
One who makes observations, monitors or takes notice.
A person sent as a representative, to a meeting or other function to monitor but not to participate.
One who adheres or follows laws, guidelines, etc.
A country or other entity which has limited participation rights within an organization.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: One who makes observations, monitors or takes notice.
Used this way, observer is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use observer
- “An experienced observer can spot subtle changes in behavior.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Makes / crew
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The act of making and recording a measurement.
The act of observing.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Fire for which the point of impact (the burst) can be seen by an observer.
A meridian that passes through the observer's zenith.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.