surveil
/sɚˈveɪl/
"surveil" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“surveil” is an uncommon English word, ranked #83,795 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #83,795
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To keep someone or something under surveillance.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | surveil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sɚˈveɪl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #83,795 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “surveil” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for surveil is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɚˈveɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #83,795 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To keep someone or something under surveillance.".
surveil doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1903. Back-formation from surveillance (but compare also French surveiller and the variant surveille). The correct English form is surveil, spelled S-U-R-V-E-I-L.
Definition
- 1To keep someone or something under surveillance.
Etymology
1903. Back-formation from surveillance (but compare also French surveiller and the variant surveille).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “surveil”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-R-V-E-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɚˈveɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.