eyewitness

noun

eye·​wit·​ness ˈī-ˈwit-nəs 

: one who sees an occurrence or an object

especially : one who gives a report on what he or she has seen

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

For an example of one such case, a friend suggests a dive into the diaries of George Templeton Strong, a wealthy nineteenth-century New York City lawyer, and his eyewitness account, from 1863, of the Draft Riots, in Manhattan. —Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024

Two years later, Monica Rivera, the only eyewitness to the crime, recanted in a tearful phone call with Duran’s family. —Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024

Saland, the former prosecutor, said a huge factor in the case will be those eyewitness accounts of the interaction and whether the use of force was justified. —Eric Levenson, CNN, 1 Nov. 2024

These convictions were not caused by unintentional mistakes by local law enforcement or misidentification by well-meaning eyewitnesses or honest but erroneous forensic analysis. —CBS News, 18 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1539, in the meaning defined above

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