surveil

American  

[ser-veyl] / 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

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

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

In all probability, Voyager 1 and its siblings—launched in 1977 to surveil our solar system’s outer planets and moons and then head into interstellar space—will vastly outlive humans, the sun and the planet Earth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Tech companies like Google and Meta are not the only recourse for the federal government to surveil social media users.

From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2026

Anthropic doesn’t want its products used to surveil Americans or create autonomous machines of war.

From Slate ● Feb. 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

But police departments were wary of being constantly surveilled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Mobile phones can also help authorities in North Korea -- one of the world's most tightly surveilled societies -- keep tabs on people.

From Barron's ● May 5, 2026

"They've probably surveilled the area, worked out what happens when, gone in the early hours with a low-loader truck and they probably sited it in a few minutes, at the quietest time possible."

From BBC ● May 1, 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 Doctorow, Cory

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

"At night, I'd often hear a buzzing sound. I was in secondary school and didn't realise it then, but these were planes surveilling our neighbourhood," Ali tells the BBC.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

“We have overhead assets that have been surveilling the area, so there’s some idea what the surface looks like.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

In the most technical sense, none of this violates the red lines that Amodei outlined around surveilling Americans or allowing its tech to power fully autonomous killing machines.

From Slate ● Mar. 3, 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