Meaning & use
stalker
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Meanings
nouncountable
Someone who keeps following, watching or contacting another person against their wishes, causing fear or distress.
Grammar: Has a regular plural: stalkers. Describes behavior that is often a crime.
Patterns
- a stalker of someone
The actress asked the police for protection from a stalker who sent her daily letters.
Her stalker had learned her schedule and waited outside her office.
Online stalkers can find a person's address from a few photos.
nouncountable
A hunter or animal that moves quietly and slowly toward its prey, trying not to be seen.
Grammar: Often appears with a word naming the prey or place: a deer stalker.
Patterns
- a stalker of something
The leopard is a patient stalker that creeps within a few yards before it strikes.
A skilled deer stalker walks upwind so the herd cannot smell him.
nouncountableinformalhumorous
A person who checks someone's social media or life in great detail, often jokingly.
Grammar: Used lightly among friends, not for real threats: Don't be such a stalker!
Don't be a stalker; just ask him where he went on vacation.
I'm a bit of a stalker when it comes to checking what my old classmates are doing.
Word forms
| plural | stalkers |
|---|
Common combinations
- a persistent stalker
- A persistent stalker kept turning up at her gym.
- report a stalker
- If you think you have a stalker, report it to the police.
- an obsessed stalker
- The singer was attacked by an obsessed stalker outside her hotel.
- a stalker's behavior
- A stalker's behavior often gets worse over time.
- online stalker
- The online stalker created fake accounts to keep in touch.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pursuer
- Pursuer is a general word for anyone chasing someone and need not carry the fear or crime that stalker does.
- harasser
- A harasser troubles someone with repeated unwelcome acts, though not necessarily by following them.
- follower
- Follower is usually neutral or positive, such as on social media, so it lacks the threatening feeling of stalker.
- predator
- Predator stresses that a person or animal hunts to harm victims, whereas stalker focuses on the persistent following.
Word family
Commonly confused: stalker or stalk?
stalker vs stalk
A stalk is the stem of a plant, and as a verb it means to follow; a stalker is the person doing the following.
Practice
After she noticed the same man outside her home every night, she told the police she had a ____.
Choose one answer.
A stalker follows someone persistently and unwanted. A fan or neighbor might simply be nearby without causing fear, and a tourist would not be there night after night.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stalker”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.