Standard Lemma guide

answerer

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɑːn.sə.ɹɚ/
  • General-American: /ˈæn.sə.ɹɚ/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A person who, or thing that, answers or responds.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1714, Jonathan Swift, The Publick Spirit of the Whigs, London: John Morphew, in Bertrand A. Goldgar and Ian Gadd (eds.), English Political Writings 1711-1714, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 256, It is a very unfair Thing in any Writer to employ his Ignorance and Malice together, because it gives his Answerer double Work [...]
  • 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of the Answerer” in Leaves of Grass (abridged reprint of the 1892 edition), New York: Modern Library, 1921, p. 141, Now list to my morning’s romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer, To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: replier, respondent, responder

Antonyms: asker, questioner

2

noun

Meaning 2

someone who responds

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: respondent, responder

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: communicator

Narrower terms: assenter, hedger, equivocator, tergiversator, interviewee, testee, examinee

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English answer Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English answerer From answer + -er.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: مُجِيب (mujīb) — person who, or thing that, answers or responds
  • Finnish: vastaaja — person who, or thing that, answers or responds
  • Portuguese: respondedor — person who, or thing that, answers or responds