Word.ws English Dictionary

onlooker

Syllables: on·look·er/ˈɔnˌlʊkəɹ//ˈɒnˌlʊkə/

onlooker noun: one who looks on or watches, without becoming involved or participating; an observer, a spectator.

onlooker: one who looks on or watches, without becoming involved or participating; an observer, a spectator
Image: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

onlooker (plural onlookers)

  1. One who looks on or watches, without becoming involved or participating; an observer, a spectator.
    • I wasn’t involved in the fight; I was only an onlooker.
    • And as thei iudge of cheſe, ſo iudge thei of bokes. / On lokers on whiche, who that narowly lokes, / Maie loke for this: […]1550, John Heywood, “Of Bokes and Chese”, in An Hundred Epigrammes. […], London: […] Thomas Berthelet, →OCLC, signature [Cvi], recto

onlooker meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

onlooker in Tamil

நோக்கர், பார்வையாளர்

onlooker in Urdu

تماش بین, تماشائی

onlooker in Bengali

দর্শক, প্রত্যক্ষদর্শী

onlooker in Malayalam

നിരീക്ഷകൻ, കാണി, നോക്കിനിൽക്കുന്നവൻ
More languagesFewer languages
onlooker in Kannada
ಪ್ರತ್ಯಕ್ಷದರ್ಶಿ, ನೋಟಕ, ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕ, ವೀಕ್ಷಕ

Examples of onlooker in a sentence

  • [T]hough his spirits seemed strung up to a high pitch, his merriment was more the merriment of a cynical and amused onlooker than of one who responds to the gaiety of his companions.1912, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], chapter XIV, in The Unbearable Bassington, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y....
  • Please allow me to adjust my pants / So that I may dance the good time dance / And put the onlookers and innocent bystanders into a trance2003 (date recorded), “The Mob Goes Wild” (0:00 from the start), in Neil Fallon (lyrics), Blast Tyrant (hard rock, stoner rock), performed...

All 15 example sentences with onlooker

Synonyms of onlooker

Forms of onlooker

pluralonlookers

Origin of onlooker

From on- (prefix meaning ‘at; on, upon’) + looker (“one that looks”), from the verb look on. Compare Old English onlōciend (“one who looks on or watches”), which did not survive into Middle English; forlookere was used in the latter language.

Questions about onlooker

What does onlooker mean?
Onlooker means one who looks on or watches, without becoming involved or participating; an observer, a spectator.
What is onlooker in Tamil?
Onlooker in Tamil is நோக்கர், பார்வையாளர். See Onlooker meaning in Tamil.
How do you use onlooker in a sentence?
[T]hough his spirits seemed strung up to a high pitch, his merriment was more the merriment of a cynical and amused onlooker than of one who responds to the gaiety of his companions.
What part of speech is onlooker?
Onlooker is a noun.
How do you pronounce onlooker?
Onlooker is pronounced /ˈɒnˌlʊkə/ (UK).
What is the plural of onlooker?
The plural of onlooker is onlookers.

Words near onlooker in the dictionary

  1. onloaned
  2. onloaning
  3. onloans
  4. onlook
  5. onlooked
  6. onlooker
  7. onlookers
  8. onlooking
  9. onlooks
  10. onlucky
  11. only

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: onlooker (page history and authors); onlooker (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onlooker (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onlooker (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onlooker (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onlooker (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-onlooker.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-onlooker.wav.

Cite this entry: “onlooker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/onlooker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.