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What is a voyeur?
Voyeur is a fairly recent addition to English; our earliest written evidence for the word dates from the beginning of the 20th century. It comes directly from a French noun meaning, literally, “one who sees.”
Initially, voyeur referred to someone who derived sexual pleasure from watching others undress or engage in intimate acts; it was synonymous with Peeping Tom. By the middle of the 20th century, its meaning had broadened to "an unduly prying observer," particularly one interested in squalid or shocking details:
[A] good biographer is always in some sense a voyeur.–Times Literary Supplement, November 5, 1971
Is a press that pries into a presidential aspirant’s personal habits pandering to voyeurs or enlightening rightfully curious voters? –Saturday Review, February 16, 1980
Examples of voyeur in a Sentence
Smithsonian Magazine, 29 July 2025
Nat Ward is not a voyeur who hides his camera under a towel to take secretive snapshots of unaware subjects.
—Literary Hub, 22 May 2025
Ultimately, the film hammers home that this klutzy, tactless new man in town is first and foremost a voyeur — which is where most of the taboo shattering comes in.
—Miriam Balanescu, IndieWire, 17 May 2025
Jeff is a bit of a voyeur or peeping Tom, though not in a perverted way.
—Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for voyeur
Cite this Entry
“Voyeur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voyeur. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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