observer

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to observer: independent, guardian, telegraph, Sunday Observer

ob·serv·er

(əb-zûr′vər)

1. One who observes: an observer of local customs; observers of religious holidays.

2. One who is sent to observe and report on events or proceedings without directly participating in them.

a. A crew member on a military aircraft who makes observations.

b. A member of an armed force who watches and reports from an observation post.

observer

(əbˈzɜːvə)

1. a person or thing that observes

2. a person who attends a conference solely to note the proceedings

3. (Military) a person trained to identify aircraft, esp, formerly, a member of an aircrew

ob•serv•er

(əbˈzɜr vər)

n.

1. someone or something that observes.

2. a delegate to an assembly or gathering, who is sent to observe and report but not to take part officially in its activities.

[1545–55]

observer

camera lucida - An optical device consisting of an attachment that enables an observer to view simultaneously the image and a drawing surface for sketching it.
horoscope - Comes from Greek hora, "hour, time," and skopos, "observer."
obverse - Its first meaning was "turned towards or facing the observer."
zenith, nadir - Zenith derived from Arabic samt ar-ras, "the way or road above one's head"; zenith technically is the point directly above the observer and nadir is the point directly below.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	observer - a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses beholder, perceiver, percipient individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do" 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; "a careful noticer of details" seer - an observer who perceives visually; "an incurable seer of movies" looker, spectator, viewer, watcher, witness - a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind); "the spectators applauded the performance"; "television viewers"; "sky watchers discovered a new star" visualiser, visualizer - one whose prevailing mental imagery is visual witness, witnesser, informant - someone who sees an event and reports what happened
	2.	observer - an expert who observes and comments on something commentator expert - a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully annotator - a commentator who writes notes to a text

observer

noun

1. witness, viewer, spectator, looker-on, watcher, onlooker, eyewitness, bystander, spotter, fly on the wall, beholder A casual observer would have assumed they were lovers.

2. commentator, commenter, reporter, special correspondent Political observers believe there may be a general election soon.

3. monitor, inspector, watchdog, supervisor, overseer, scrutineer A UN observer should attend the conference.

Quotations
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking" [Christopher Isherwood Goodbye to Berlin]

observer

noun

Someone who observes:

beholder, bystander, looker-on, onlooker, spectator, watcher.

Translations

مُراقِبمُرَاقِبٌّ

pozorovatelpřihlížející

observatør

Beobachter Betrachter Betrachterin

παρατηρητής

observador

tarkkailija

observateur

promatrač

athugandi, skoîandi

osservatore

観察者

관찰자

observatör

ผู้สังเกตการณ์

gözlemci

quan sát viên

观察者观测者

observer

[əbˈzɜːvəʳ] N → observador(a) m/f

observer

[əbˈzɜː^rvə^r] n

(= onlooker) → observateur/trice m/f
a casual observer → un observateur superficiel

(= expert) → observateur/trice m/f
Political observers believe that a decision may be announced shortly → Les observateurs politiques pensent qu'une décision pourrait être annoncée prochainement.

(= witness) → témoin m
Observers say the woman stabbed him → Les témoins disent que la femme l'a poignardé.

observer

n (= watcher) → Zuschauer(in) m(f); (Mil, Aviat, Pol) → Beobachter(in) m(f)

observer

[əbˈzɜːvəʳ] n → osservatore/trice

observe

(əbˈzəːv) verb

1. to notice. I observed her late arrival.

2. to watch carefully. She observed his actions with interest.

3. to obey. We must observe the rules.

4. to make a remark. `It's a lovely day', he observed.

obˈservance noun

1. the act of obeying rules etc. the observance of the law.

2. the act of observing (a tradition etc). the observance of religious holidays.

obˈservant adjective

quick to notice. An observant boy remembered the car's registration number.

ˌobserˈvation (ob-) noun

1. the act of noticing or watching. She is in hospital for observation.

2. a remark.

obˈservatory – plural obˈservatories – noun

a place for observing and studying the stars, weather etc.

obˈserver noun

a person who observes.

observer

→ مُرَاقِبٌّ přihlížející observatør Beobachter παρατηρητής observador tarkkailija observateur promatrač osservatore 観察者 관찰자 observator observatør obserwator observador наблюдатель observatör ผู้สังเกตการณ์ gözlemci quan sát viên 观察者

References in classic literature ?

An observer endued with an infinite range of vision, and placed in that unknown center around which the entire world revolves, might have beheld myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of the universe.

View in context

A casual observer, adds the secretary, to whose notes we are indebted for the following account--a casual observer might possibly have remarked nothing extraordinary in the bald head, and circular spectacles, which were intently turned towards his

View in context

One object, above all others, would take root in the imaginative observer's memory.

View in context

Matthew was not looking at her and would not have seen what she was really like if he had been, but an ordinary observer would have seen this: A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very ugly dress of yellowish-gray wincey.

View in context

Moreover, whenever complicated experiments are in progress, so careful an observer as Gartner would have castrated his hybrids, and this would have insured in each generation a cross with the pollen from a distinct flower, either from the same plant or from another plant of the same hybrid nature.

View in context

"An outside observer, unable to perceive the accompanying consciousness, might be wholly at a loss to discriminate between the automatic acts and those which volition escorted.

View in context

As to the nature of these friendships, which seemed so many to the eye of the superficial observer, they were of various kinds, and while the girl pursued them with enthusiasm and ardor, they left her unsatisfied and heart-hungry; they were never intimacies such as are so readily made by shallow natures.

View in context

A casual observer might have thought "and there ends the dialogue!" That casual observer would have been mistaken.

View in context

A casual observer might have concluded that Anne's going mattered very little to her -- unless said observer had happened to get a good look in her eyes.

View in context

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

View in context

(With this method of observation it often happens that the observer, influenced by the direction he himself prefers, regards those as leaders who, owing to the people's change of direction, are no longer in front, but on one side, or even in the rear.)

View in context

An observer with anything of an eye for national types would have had no difficulty in determining the local origin of this undeveloped connoisseur, and indeed such an observer might have felt a certain humorous relish of the almost ideal completeness with which he filled out the national mould.