bystander
/ˈbaɪˌstænd.ə(ɹ)/
bystander noun: a person who, although present at some event, does not take part in it; an observer, witness, or spectator.
Noun
bystander (plural bystanders)
- A person who, although present at some event, does not take part in it; an observer, witness, or spectator.
- If he wins, he will be at liberty, perhaps, to give vent to a laugh, or to pass a remark on the circumstance to a bystander, or to stake again, or to double his stake; but, even this he must do solely out of curiosity, and for the pleasure of watching the play of chances and of calculations, and...1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter II, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/II)
- Conservative influencer Nick Sortor is handcuffed Thursday night by a police officer outside an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, a bystander video shows; the video does not show events leading up to the arrest.2025 October 3, Andy Rose, “Arrest of conservative influencer Nick Sortor outside Portland ICE building now under federal investigation”, in CNN
- Synonyms:
- onlooker
bystander meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
bystander in Tamil
- பக்கத்தில் நின்றுகொண்டிருப்பவர், பார்வையாளர்
bystander in Urdu
- تماشائی
bystander in Bengali
- দর্শক, পাশে দাঁড়ানো ব্যক্তি
bystander in Malayalam
- കാഴ്ചക്കാരൻ
More languagesFewer languages
- bystander in Kannada
- ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕ, ನೋಡುತ್ತ ನಿಂತ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ನೋಟಕ
- bystander in Arabic
- مُتَفَرِّج mutafarrij
- bystander in Myanmar
- ဘေးလူ bhe:lu
Examples of bystander in a sentence
- The man walked down the street so sillily that many a bystander stopped and stared slack-jawed.
- The bystanders were indiscriminately gunned down by trigger-happy gang members.
- Regular acts of courage—bystanders defusing fights, subordinates standing up to abusive power holders—inspired awe.
Synonyms of bystander
Forms of bystander
| plural | bystanders |
|---|---|
| alternative form | bye-stander |
| alternative form | by-stander |
Origin of bystander
From by- + stander. Compare passerby.
Words formed from bystander
Phrases with bystander
Questions about bystander
- What does bystander mean?
- Bystander means a person who, although present at some event, does not take part in it; an observer, witness, or spectator.
- What is bystander in Tamil?
- Bystander in Tamil is பக்கத்தில் நின்றுகொண்டிருப்பவர், பார்வையாளர். See Bystander meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is bystander?
- Bystander is a noun.
- How do you pronounce bystander?
- Bystander is pronounced /ˈbaɪˌstænd.ə(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of bystander?
- The plural of bystander is bystanders.
Words near bystander in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bystander (page history and authors); bystander (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bystander (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bystander (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bystander (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bystander (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bystander.wav.
Cite this entry: “bystander.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bystander. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.