monitor
/ˈmɑ.nɪ.tɚ/noun, verb
monitor is spelled M-O-N-I-T-O-R. The wrong spelling people search most is moniter: about 2,140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 31 of all searches for the word. Monitor is a noun meaning “Someone who watches over something; a person in charge of something or someone”. The plural of monitor is monitors.
How many letters and syllables are in monitor?
| Letters | 7: M-O-N-I-T-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,814th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, moniter, about 2,140 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell monitor?
Monitor is spelled M-O-N-I-T-O-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 31 of the searches for monitor in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is monitor?
Monitor appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce monitor?
- UK /ˈmɒn.ɪ.tə/
- US /ˈmɑ.nɪ.tɚ/
- US [ˈmɑ.nɪ.ɾɚ]
Monitor has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-monitor.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-monitor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of monitor
- monitors plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- monitour
- monitoring participle, present
- monitored participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does monitor mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Someone who watches over something; a person in charge of something or someone.
The camp monitors look after the children during the night, when the teachers are asleep.
- 2
A device that detects and informs on the presence, quantity, etc., of something.
- 3
A device similar to a television set used as to give a graphical display of the output from a computer.
The information flashed up on the monitor.
- 4
A studio monitor or loudspeaker.
- 5
A program for viewing and editing.
a machine code monitor
- 6
datedThe command line interface of an operating system.
- 7
archaicA student leader in a class.
- 8
A relatively small armored warship with only one or two turrets (but often carrying unusually large guns for a warship of its size), usually designed for shore bombardment or riverine warfare rather than open-ocean combat.
verb
- 1
To watch over; to guard.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Monitor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | moniteur, monitrice , écran , délégué de classe, déléguée de classe , contrôler |
| German | Aufpasser, Wächter , Bildschirm, Monitor , Klassensprecher, Klassensprecherin |
| Portuguese | monitor, observador , monitorar, monitorizar |
| Spanish | monitor , delegado de clase, delegada de clase , monitorear, monitorizar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does monitor come from?
From Latin monitor (“warner”), from perfect passive participle monitus (“warning”), from verb monere (“to warn, admonish, remind”). Warship sense is from USS Monitor, the first ship of this type.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).