English · Idiom Candidate

spectator sport

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

An activity that is interesting to watch, but not to participate in.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

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Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a sport watched by spectators

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Their divorce was a spectator sport for the whole town.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “spectator sport” mean?

An activity that is interesting to watch, but not to participate in. Literally: a sport watched by spectators

Is “spectator sport” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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