attendee

English

Etymology

attend +‎ -ee

Noun

attendee (plural attendees)

1. A person who is in attendance or in the audience of an event.
   • 2000, Russian Government, Federal Constitutional Law №3 dated December 25, 2000:

     During the official performance of the National Anthem of the Russian Federation all attendees are supposed to stand and men take their hats off.

   • 2002, Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom, chapter 11:

     O'Reilly, the summit host, remembers a particularly insightful comment from Torvalds, a summit attendee.

   • 2021 March 24, Stefanie Foster, “Hidden London: Old Tube on YouTube”, in RAIL, number 927, page 42:

     There is also no barrier to those living outside of London, which the team quickly discovered when they started running virtual tours and found that 50% of the attendees were from overseas, joining the tour from as far away as Singapore, Toronto and Australia.

2. (uncommon) A person who is attended.

Usage notes

Attender was originally the more common word for a person attending, but was overtaken by attendee in the 1970s. In 1988, Merriam-Webster still only noted attender with this meaning. With most nouns formed from verbs – such as payer, trainer, employer – it's the receiver of action that's formed with -ee: payee, trainee, employee. The Financial Times favours attender, while The Economist's style guide cautions against attendee, but prefers those attending.

Synonyms

• (participant in an event): attendant (chiefly archaic), audience (member), participant
• (person in attendance): attender, audience (member)

Related terms

• attendant

Translations

References

Anagrams

• edentate