What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Spectator vs Crowd - What's the difference?

spectator | crowd |

As nouns the difference between spectator and crowd

is that spectator is one who observes an event; an observer while crowd is a group of people congregated or collected into a close body without order.

As a verb crowd is

to press forward; to advance by pushing.

spectator

English

Alternative forms

* spectatour (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who observes an event; an observer.
    • The cheering spectators watched the fireworks.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 20 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Bart spies an opportunity to make a quick buck so he channels his inner carny and posits his sinking house as a natural wonder of the world and its inhabitants as freaks, barking to dazzled spectators , “Behold the horrors of the Slanty Shanty! See the twisted creatures that dwell within! Meet Cue-Ball, the man with no hair!”}}

    Derived terms

    * spectate * spectatorship

    Anagrams

    * ----

    crowd

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch kruien.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To press forward; to advance by pushing.
    • The man crowded into the packed room.
  • To press together or collect in numbers; to swarm; to throng.
    • They crowded through the archway and into the park.
  • * Addison:
    • The whole company crowded about the fire.
  • * Macaulay:
    • Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words.
  • To press or drive together, especially into a small space; to cram.
    • He tried to crowd too many cows into the cow-pen.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Crowd us and crush us.
  • To fill by pressing or thronging together.
  • * Prescott
    • The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
  • To push, to press, to shove.
    • tried to crowd her off the sidewalk
  • * 2006 , Lanna Nakone, Every Child Has a Thinking Style (ISBN 0399532463), page 73:
    • Alexis's mementos and numerous dance trophies were starting to crowd her out of her little bedroom.
  • (nautical) To approach another ship too closely when it has right of way.
  • To carry excessive sail in the hope of moving faster.
  • To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.
    • Derived terms
    * crowd control * crowd manipulation * crowd out * crowd psychology * crowd sail

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A group of people congregated or collected into a close body without order.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked homeHe walked the whole way, walking through crowds , and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • *
  • *:He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
  • Several things collected or closely pressed together; also, some things adjacent to each other.
  • :
  • (lb) The so-called lower orders of people; the populace, vulgar.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • *:To fool the crowd with glorious lies.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:He went not with the crowd to see a shrine.
  • A group of people united or at least characterised by a common interest.
  • :
    • Synonyms
    * (group of things) aggregation, cluster, group, mass * (group of people) audience, group, multitude, public, swarm, throng * (the "lower orders" of people) everyone, general public, masses, rabble, mob, unwashed
    Derived terms
    * crowd catch * crowd-pleaser * crowd-puller * work the crowd

    Etymology 2

    Celtic, from Welsh crwth.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A crwth, an Ancient Celtic plucked string instrument.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • A lackey that can warble upon a crowd a little.
  • (now dialectal) A fiddle.
  • * 1819': wandering palmers, hedge-priests, Saxon minstrels, and Welsh bards, were muttering prayers, and extracting mistuned dirges from their harps, '''crowds , and rotes. — Walter Scott, ''Ivanhoe
  • * 1684': That keep their consciences in cases, / As fiddlers do with ' crowds and bases — Samuel Butler, "Hudibras"

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To play on a crowd; to fiddle.
  • * Massinger
    • Fiddlers, crowd on.

    References

    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *