noun
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the study or practice of measuring altitudes, angles, and distances on the land surface so that they can be accurately plotted on a map
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the setting out on the ground of the positions of proposed construction or engineering works
Etymology
Origin of surveying
1425–75; late Middle English: act of examining closely; see survey, -ing 1
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.
Yet he produces a fresh Arendt: less a lone intelligence surveying the 20th century’s catastrophes from above than a participant in its battered institutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The scheme, alongside others including Nuclear Waste Services and Cumbria Wildlife Trust, will involve surveying the county's sand dune habitats which, like those in the rest of the country, have been historically degraded.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
This image is part of a Hubble Treasury program that is surveying approximately half of the Milky Way's known globular clusters.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
"When I opened it in the seventies, I was still a young man... now nothing is left," he said, leaning heavily on a walking stick and surveying the vast destruction.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
European knowledge of Mount Everest depends on a long history of discovery, exploration, surveying and cartography.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
