surveillance.
Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion.
Meaning & usage
Close observation of an individual or group; person or persons under suspicion.
Continuous monitoring of disease occurrence for example.
Systematic observation of places and people by visual, aural, electronic, photographic or other means.
In criminal law, an investigation process by which police gather evidence about crimes, or suspected crime, through continued observation of persons or places.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Italic *super Latin super Latin super- Old French sur- Proto-Indo-European *weǵ-der. Proto-Indo-European *weǵlis Proto-Italic *weglis Latin vigil Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin vigilōder. Latin vigilāre Vulgar Latin *viglāre Old French veillier Old French surveillier French surveiller Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ance Middle French -ance French -ance French surveillancebor. English surveillance 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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.