eyewitness

noun

eye·​wit·​ness ˈī-ˈwit-nəs 

: one who sees an occurrence or an object

especially : one who gives a report of what has happened

Examples of eyewitness in a Sentence

The police are hoping to locate an eyewitness to the shooting.

He was able to give an eyewitness account of the shooting.

Recent Examples on the Web

This story is part of a series marking 175 years of eyewitness journalism from The New York Times. — Sam Ezersky, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026

Multiple eyewitnesses identified him to police and he was arrested, the prosecutor said, adding that Tyghter was implicated in CCTV footage. — Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 28 Sep. 2026

Security measures have been significantly increased in recent days at the air base, according to an eyewitness quoted by the Reuters news agency, who said there had been more roadblocks and armed police preventing access. — Duarte Dias, CBS News, 27 Sep. 2026

The state argued that powerful circumstantial evidence – the timeline of Allen’s walk near the bridge, eyewitness statements and Allen’s own words to the police – also implicate him in the murders. — Jen Guadarrama, IndyStar, 21 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1539, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for eyewitness

• fitness
• witness
• unfitness

Kids Definition

eyewitness

noun

eye·​wit·​ness -ˈwit-nəs 

: a person who sees an occurrence and is able to give a report of it

Legal Definition

eyewitness

noun

eye·​wit·​ness

: one who sees an occurrence or object or sometimes experiences it through other senses (as hearing) and usually reports or testifies about it