Examples of onlooker in a Sentence
Curious onlookers watched the ceremony.
An onlooker noticed the disturbance.
A crowd of onlookers gathered at the fire.
Recent Examples on the Web
The path of totality, where onlookers can witness the moon fully blocking the sun (through eclipse viewing glasses for safety), is expected to first make landfall near the city of Mazatlán around 9:51 a.m.
—
Sarah Maddox, CBS News, 9 Apr. 2024
In other anecdotes, onlookers have reported birds that stop singing, crickets that stopped chirping, or bees that return to their hive, reduce their foraging, or suspend their flight during total darkness.
—Geraldine Castro, WIRED, 6 Apr. 2024
Several onlookers captured footage of the flightless bird dodging cars and running across lanes of traffic.
—Kelli Bender, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
In Bell’s case, experts who study gender and psychology said that onlookers often struggle to recognize that a perpetrator can also have been a victim, even though perpetrators have often been victimized in the past.
—Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 27 Mar. 2024
Social media video showed that Hamas struggled to control the onlookers, who surrounded the car, pressed up against its windows and at one point began to rock the vehicle, Ms. Soussana said.
—Ronen Bergman, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2024
The lack of an official narrative has left room for onlookers to craft their own theories about what’s going on behind closed doors—going against many of the golden rules of PR and communications strategy, experts say.
—Sydney Lake, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2024
More than a dozen onlookers gawked from the beach and others watched from the pier as the bizarre situation continued to unfold.
—Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2024
Certainly onlookers were fascinated and took lots of pictures of eachother through the central screen’s camera display.
—Alex Kwanten, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Sarah Maddox, CBS News, 9 Apr. 2024
In other anecdotes, onlookers have reported birds that stop singing, crickets that stopped chirping, or bees that return to their hive, reduce their foraging, or suspend their flight during total darkness.
—Geraldine Castro, WIRED, 6 Apr. 2024
Several onlookers captured footage of the flightless bird dodging cars and running across lanes of traffic.
—Kelli Bender, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
In Bell’s case, experts who study gender and psychology said that onlookers often struggle to recognize that a perpetrator can also have been a victim, even though perpetrators have often been victimized in the past.
—Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 27 Mar. 2024
Social media video showed that Hamas struggled to control the onlookers, who surrounded the car, pressed up against its windows and at one point began to rock the vehicle, Ms. Soussana said.
—Ronen Bergman, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2024
The lack of an official narrative has left room for onlookers to craft their own theories about what’s going on behind closed doors—going against many of the golden rules of PR and communications strategy, experts say.
—Sydney Lake, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2024
More than a dozen onlookers gawked from the beach and others watched from the pier as the bizarre situation continued to unfold.
—Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2024
Certainly onlookers were fascinated and took lots of pictures of eachother through the central screen’s camera display.
—Alex Kwanten, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'onlooker.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1606, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near onlooker
Cite this Entry
“Onlooker.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/onlooker. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
onlooker
noun
on·look·er
ˈȯn-ˌlu̇k-ər 
ˈän-
More from Merriam-Webster on onlooker
Nglish: Translation of onlooker for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of onlooker for Arabic Speakers
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