surveillance
Americannoun
-
surveillances
plural
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a watch kept over a person, group, etc., especially over a suspect, prisoner, or the like.
The suspects were under police surveillance.
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continuous observation of a place, person, group, or ongoing activity in order to gather information.
video cameras used for covert surveillance.
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attentive observation, as to oversee and direct someone or something.
increased surveillance of patients with chronic liver disease.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of surveillance
1790–1800; < French, equivalent to surveill ( er ) to watch over ( sur- sur- 1 + veiller < Latin vigilāre to watch; see vigil) + -ance -ance
Explanation
Many times, a person suspected of something illegal by the authorities is placed under surveillance, meaning he or she is closely watched to see if their suspicions are well-founded. If you break down the word surveillance you get the prefix sur, from the French word for "over" and the root veiller, meaning "to watch." All of which is a roundabout way of saying that if you are under surveillance, you are being closely watched — usually by the authorities, and usually not for a good reason! Those surveillance cameras in banks and stores are put there in the hopes of both preventing crimes and recognizing criminals after a crime has been committed.
Vocabulary lists containing surveillance
John F. Kennedy's Address to the American People on the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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This Week In Words: August 1–6, 2020
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That information could also improve modern disease surveillance and efforts to monitor places where plague still circulates today.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
The fight against data centers and private surveillance cameras has crossed partisan lines, bringing erstwhile enemies together in the fight against creepy tech.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Though political opposites, they have landed on the same side of a fast-growing national backlash: a fight against government surveillance that has forged rare common ground in America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Marciniw’s Facebook profile describes him as a helicopter pilot with experience in aerial filming, surveillance, flight instruction and helicopter management.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
At the completion of the course, CIA trainees were tested by top FBI surveillance teams.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
And with the increased use of the Internet and so that changed the level of technical complexity of the surveillances that the FBI wanted to do.
From MSNBC ● May 30, 2019
The secretive court approves surveillances warrants under Fisa against "agent of a foreign power", mainly to either the FBI or NSA.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2017
I am still being surveilled, but now it’s much harder to tie all those small surveillances back to me and ads don’t follow me around.
From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2015
Del Rosario said the latest Chinese activity in Scarborough Shoal was discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where fresh surveillances pictures were shown.
From Reuters ● Sep. 4, 2013
I had expected to detect some evidences of surveillances, but if any were indeed being observed, the fact was effectively masked.
From The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
