surveil

American  

[ser-vayl] / sərˈveɪl /

verb (used with object)

surveilled, surveilling

1. to place under surveillance.

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surveil British  

/ sɜːˈveɪl /

verb

1. to observe closely the activities of (a person or group)

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Etymology

Origin of surveil

First recorded in 1965–70; back formation from surveillance

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Explanation

To surveil is to spy on someone, the way a television private eye sits in her car and uses binoculars to surveil the show's villain. The noun surveillance came first, from the French surveiller, "to oversee or watch." If you were to surveil someone, you'd keep a close eye on them, monitoring everything they do. These days, that means keeping track of their online activity as well as their phone calls and physical movement. It's usually authority and governmental figures doing the surveillance — although if a company wants to sell you something, they just might surveil your internet history.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

surveil surveilled surveilling

In late 2024, as authorities started to surveil her, Alice Huang disappeared into China for a period, the people said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Australia's military uses the small uncrewed boats to quietly surveil its vast northern coastline, powered by a solar mast and wind.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Axios reported this info as a “scoop,” but it’s relatively routine to surveil any pathogen that could cause severe damage to national security.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

It added that the use of robots made outside the US could allow "malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots."

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

Critics worry that the quieter, nimbler drones will be used to surveil the public with little oversight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026

This generation—the most surveilled in history because of hyper-involved parenting and cellphones—often struggles to achieve independence, says Joshua Coleman, a psychologist specializing in estrangement who led the “The Family Summit” conference in Chicago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

“People were being surveilled by the FBI, and they’d pay family members or people they knew to survey them.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

There’s a trade-off: We experience a little emotional discomfort by being constantly surveilled, but we are rewarded with the more physical comforts of safety and efficiency.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

On Thursday, DHS said agents had seen two white vans weeks prior to the incident at an address they had surveilled.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

I'm a senior at Cesar Chavez high in San Francisco's sunny Mission district, and that makes me one of the most surveilled people in the world.

From Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

It’s a casual surveilling of placidity just up the coast from the atrocities we hear about.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

They’re not surveilling their readers or mining their data.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

"Between 2018 and 2023, apparently there was a resurface of major trafficking and transiting in Liberia. Over the last one-and-a-half years, we've been surveilling them and this is the result of that operation," said Coleman.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

He spoke as cheers echoed off the skyscrapers dotted around the World Trade Center, where Knicks gathered alongside National Guard troops surveilling the area.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

“They’re watching us in here, too? Are we allowed to use the bathroom privately, or are they surveilling our bodily functions as well?”

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

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