surveillance
Americannoun
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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:
“Our society has become much more of a surveillance society,” Martin said.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Hobsbawm passed the war in the Army Educational Corps under MI5 surveillance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
In a world where everyone is carrying smartphones and setting up Ring cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking the war is over and the surveillance state won.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
The spokesperson said this is "making sure the Probation Service has the resource it needs to keep dangerous offenders under closer surveillance than ever before".
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
As I dug further into her file, I learned that they’d had her under surveillance for the past five months.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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
"I have conducted surveillances for Triangle in England, in South America, Miami, California, Hong Kong, Peru, Alaska. I travel all over the world doing these surveillances and nothing really changes," Sullivan said.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2015
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
The soldiers went to bed, and Keyser lay wondering for a while before he took his nap between his surveillances.
From Red Men and White by Frederic Remington
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.
