"During the chess games, the telegraph operators occasionally asked each other how many people were in the room. At times, a dozen kibitzers [ˈkɪbɪtsɚ] looked on. At others, only the rotating cast of chess players and telegraph operators was present." — Greg Uyeno, IEEE Spectrum, 11 Dec. 2025

kibitzer [ˈkɪbɪtsɚ]
noun

A kibitzer is someone who watches other people and makes unwanted comments about what they are doing.

Kibitzer came into English—by way of the Yiddish kibitser—from the German word kiebitzen, meaning "to look on (at a card game)." (Like its ancestor, kibitzer was originally, and sometimes still is, applied to vocal observers of cards as well as other games.) Although kibitzer usually implies the imparting of unwanted advice...

English