surveillance

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surveillance

  • /sɚˈveɪ.ləns/ US
  • /səˈveɪ.ləns/ UK
  • /səɾˈveː.ləns/ India

Where it comes from

Unadapted borrowing from French surveillance (“a watching over, overseeing, supervision”), from surveiller (“to watch, oversee”), from sur- (“over”) + veiller (“to watch”), from Middle French, from Old French veillier (“to stay awake”), from Latin vigilāre (“to be watchful”). More at vigilant.

noun surveillances

  1. countable, uncountable Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion. The surveillance program includes at least 480 LPRs that scan and record about 16.2 million vehicles per week and stores that data for two years, he wrote in the court filing.
  2. countable, uncountable Continuous monitoring of disease occurrence for example. Lady Anne appeared in a week or two to have greatly recovered her appetite, and she talked much of the benefit derived from her native air, in order to gain which, she constantly drove out in Lord Rotheles's carriages, and appeared to derive comfort from her admiration of his beautiful bays; beyond
  3. countable, uncountable Systematic observation of places and people by visual, aural, electronic, photographic or other means. The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.
  4. countable, uncountable In criminal law, an investigation process by which police gather evidence about crimes, or suspected crime, through continued observation of persons or places.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: spy, monitoring, espionage, stakeout, monitor, controlling, vigilante, control, inspection, detect, censorship, scrutiny, oversee, survey, probation, detection

Translations

Every language

noun observation of individuals or groups of individuals

Españolvigilancia
한국어감시 gamsi
日本語監視 kanshi, サーベイランス sābeiransu
中文監測 /监测 jiāncè, 監視 /监视 jiānshì
हिन्दीपर्यवेक्षण paryavekṣaṇ, निरीक्षण nirīkṣaṇ
Kiswahiliulinzi
Portuguêsvigilância
Françaissurveillance, fichage
DeutschÜberwachung
Italianosorveglianza
Ελληνικάπαρακολούθηση parakoloúthisi, επιτήρηση epitírisi
Românăsupraveghere
Русскийнадзо́р nadzór, наблюде́ние nabljudénije
Tiếng Việtsự giám sát
עבריתמעקב סמוי maakav samui

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MLA

"surveillance." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/surveillance. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

surveillance. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/surveillance

Chicago

"surveillance." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/surveillance.

BibTeX
@misc{surveillance_2026,
  title = {surveillance},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/surveillance},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}