beholder
Other forms: beholders
A beholder is an observer: someone who gains awareness of things through the senses, especially sight. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the person who is observing gets to decide what is beautiful.
A common saying is "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," which means beauty doesn't exist on its own but is created by observers. That famous quote can help you remember that a beholder is someone who sees or otherwise experiences things, becoming aware of them. To be a beholder, you have to pay attention. Different beholders might take in different aspects of the same event, like witnesses to a crime.
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a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses
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synonyms:
observer, perceiver, percipient
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types:
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eyeglass wearer
a person who wears spectacles in order to see better
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discoverer, finder, spotter
someone who is the first to observe something
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attender, auditor, hearer, listener
someone who listens attentively
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audile
one whose mental imagery is auditory rather than visual or motor
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motile
one whose prevailing mental imagery takes the form of inner feelings of action
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noticer
someone who takes notice
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seer
an observer who perceives visually
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looker, spectator, viewer, watcher, witness
a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)
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visualiser, visualizer
one whose prevailing mental imagery is visual
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informant, witness, witnesser
someone who sees an event and reports what happened
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attestant, attester
someone who affirms or vouches for the correctness or truth or genuineness of something
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browser
a viewer who looks around casually without seeking anything in particular
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bystander
a nonparticipant spectator
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cheerer
a spectator who shouts encouragement
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co-discoverer
someone who is the first of two or more people to discover something
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eavesdropper
a secret listener to private conversations
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eyewitness
a spectator who can describe what happened
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gawker
a spectator who stares stupidly without intelligent awareness
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motion-picture fan, moviegoer
someone who goes to see movies
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ogler
a viewer who gives a flirtatious or lewd look at another person
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looker-on, onlooker
someone who looks on
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playgoer, theatergoer, theatregoer
someone who attends the theater
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rubberneck, rubbernecker
a person who stares inquisitively
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spy
a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people
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starer
a viewer who gazes fixedly (often with hostility)
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deponent, deposer, testifier
a person who testifies or gives a deposition
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Peeping Tom, peeper, voyeur
a viewer who enjoys seeing the sex acts or sex organs of others
Vocabulary lists containing beholder
This play details the overthrow of King Richard II of England by Henry Bolingbroke and his allies.
After her family moves to the insular small town of Unity Valley, Astrid feels unable to open up to her parents and confused by her relationships with her friends — so she explores her feelings by imagining conversations with passengers in the airplanes that fly overhead.
During one action-packed summer, brothers Caleb and Bobby Gene team up with smooth schemer Styx Malone in an attempt to escape their small town.
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