noun
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a person who reports, esp one employed to gather news for a newspaper, news agency, or broadcasting organization
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a person, esp a barrister, authorized to write official accounts of judicial proceedings
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a person authorized to report the proceedings of a legislature
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social welfare an official who arranges and conducts children's panel hearings and who may investigate cases and decide on the action to be taken
Etymology
Origin of reporter
1350–1400; Middle English reportour < Anglo-French ( Old French reporteur ). See report, -er 1
Explanation
A reporter is a journalist who goes out and gets the scoop on the news and informs the rest of us. If there’s a news conference or a train crash, a reporter is probably there getting the lowdown. If you want to be a reporter one day, you might study journalism in college, learning to write accurate and informative stories. Many reporters research, write, and edit articles about politics or current events, but you could also be a pop culture reporter or a tech reporter. The newspaper sense of reporter dates from 1798 — earlier it simply meant "one who gives an account."
Vocabulary lists containing reporter
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -er, -or
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Journalism Jargon
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The digital recording system used as a backup to the official court reporter produced a transcript the defense said was too flawed to be of much use.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 13, 2026
Guest: Max Chafkin, reporter with Bloomberg Businessweek and cohost of the Everybody’s Business podcast.
From Slate • Jun. 12, 2026
The event "was so low-profile that neither the Denver Post nor Rocky Mountain News even bothered to send a reporter," noted Brian Trembath in a Denver Public Library blog.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
Raven-Symoné, who is not Jewish, appears to deliver one single line playing a Floridian television reporter named Shayna Gefilte-Manischewitz.
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026
I met a nice reporter named Joy who was doing an article for the paper on the poultry show.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
