OBSERVER

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

Synonyms:

commentator; observer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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)

Credits

Context examples:

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

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

Observers have already discovered more than 90 percent of the estimated population of the large NEOs — those larger than 0.6 miles (one kilometer).

(Catalog of Known Near-Earth Asteroids Tops 15,000, NASA)

To date, Earth-bound observers have spotted nearly 4,000 of them.

(Even 'Goldilocks' exoplanets need a well-behaved star, National Science Foundation )

An observer sitting on Thalassa would see Naiad in an orbit that varies wildly in a zigzag pattern, passing by twice from above and then twice from below.

(NASA Finds Neptune Moons Locked in 'Dance of Avoidance', NASA)

Isabella, to be sure, was no very quick observer; yet if Harriet had not been equal to playing with the children, it would not have escaped her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Importantly, these activity patterns occurred spontaneously, well before partner’s choices and without decision requirement for the observer.

(‘Mindreading’ neurons simulate decisions of social partners, University of Cambridge)

I had not, Miss Crawford, been an inattentive observer of what was passing between him and some part of this family in the summer and autumn.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I had no sympathy in their appearance, their expression: yet I could imagine that most observers would call them attractive, handsome, imposing; while they would pronounce Mr. Rochester at once harsh-featured and melancholy-looking.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Even though that is relatively close by celestial standards, it is expected to be fairly faint, so night-sky Earth observers would need at least a small telescope to view it.