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# surveillance

«surveillance» in Mova's school dictionary: **carefully watching a person, place or activity, often…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (surveillance — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Surveillance is carefully watching a person, place or activity, often secretly, to check for crime or danger or to collect information. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#m1)

2) Surveillance can mean the cameras and equipment used for watching, such as CCTV. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday UK life, there is CCTV surveillance in shops, stations and streets. In stories, police or spies keep a suspect «under surveillance». In citizenship and online safety lessons, pupils discuss privacy: who can watch us, and how apps and websites collect data. In health, «disease surveillance» means watching for outbreaks. Phrases: «under surveillance», «surveillance cameras», «CCTV surveillance».

### examples

- The shop has surveillance cameras near the door. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x1)
- The police kept the house under surveillance. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x2)
- Spies use surveillance to gather secrets. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x3)
- There is a lot of CCTV surveillance in big cities. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x4)
- Doctors use surveillance to spot new flu outbreaks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x5)
- Some people worry that too much surveillance harms privacy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x6)
- The bird watchers' surveillance of the nest lasted weeks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/#x7)

### note

Uncountable. Spelling: double l, «-ance»: surveillance. From French «surveiller» (to watch over). Pronounced «sur-VAY-lance».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «surveillance» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/surveillance/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.