bystander
Other forms: bystanders
Someone who observes an event without taking part in it is a bystander. The police may want to interview any bystanders who witnessed a robbery, to get a description of the robber.
A bystander does exactly what the word describes: they stand by, watching what's happening but not participating. You'll often hear the phrase "innocent bystander." For example, a newspaper might report on a fight breaking out after a football game, resulting in injuries to innocent bystanders. Before this word was coined around 1610, stander-by was common.
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a nonparticipant spectator
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Vocabulary lists containing bystander
Mr. Popper, who dreams of exploring the polar regions, receives a penguin as a gift — and soon he training an entire penguin family to be part of Popper's Performing Penguins.
Edge: Level B, Volume 1, Unit 3, Cluster 2. Here are links to the other clusters within Unit 3: "The Sword in the Stone" and "Was There a Real King Arthur?", "A Job for Valentin" and "In the Heart of a Hero", "The Woman in the Snow" and "Rosa Parks"
This nonfiction account of the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery is richly illustrated with archival photographs.