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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
Charlotte Collins, Architectural Digest, 25 June 2024
The exhibition investigates these influences through the lens of four themes that Picasso returned to throughout his artistic career: the hero, the Minotaur, the voyeur and the musketeer.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 June 2024
The record’s primary premise is that Drake is a voyeur of Black American culture.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 14 May 2024
These audiences include a wide variety of people that players need to figure out: traditional Crush House fans, landscape lovers, voyeurs who will fawn over a toilet, film students who want to see a good shot.
—Megan Farokhmanesh, WIRED, 4 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for voyeur 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'voyeur.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near voyeur
Cite this Entry
“Voyeur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voyeur. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
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