surveillance
Americannoun
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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:
By sending more of these cells into circulation, the body may improve immune surveillance and strengthen its ability to respond to possible threats.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
Commissioned as an underground replacement for an Iranian centrifuge-assembly facility that was badly damaged after a 2020 explosion, Pickaxe has been under surveillance by the U.S. and Israel for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
“If every protest, every recording, every act of dissent opens us up to surveillance and retribution, privacy and free speech are at risk of collapse.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat is an uncrewed aircraft, developed with the Royal Australian Air Force, to fly alongside crewed fighter jets carrying out electronic warfare and surveillance and to help multiply forces.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Officer Delinko’s sergeant said, “Captain, I ought to tell you that David volunteered for this surveillance duty at the construction site. And he went out early in the morning, on his own off-duty time.”
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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 Rohmer, Sax
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.
