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Oversee vs Surveil - What's the difference?

oversee | surveil |

As verbs the difference between oversee and surveil

is that oversee is to survey, look at something in a wide angle while surveil is to keep someone or something under surveillance.

oversee

English

Verb

(transitive)
  • (literally) To survey, look at something in a wide angle.
  • (figuratively) To supervise, guide, review or direct the actions of a person or group.
    • It is congress's duty to oversee the spending of federal funds.
  • To inspect, examine
    • Gamekeepers oversee a hunting ground to see to the wildlife's welfare and look for poachers.
  • (obsolete) To fail to see; to overlook, ignore.
  • * , II.ix:
    • Thereat the Elfe did blush in priuitee, / And turnd his face away; but she the same / Dissembled faire, and faynd to ouersee .
  • To observe secretly or unintentionally.

    • Derived terms

    * overseer * oversight

    See also

    * overlook * overwatch

    surveil

    English

    Verb

  • (nonstandard) To keep someone or something under surveillance.
  • :The plaintiff also stresses that the store as a whole, and the customer exits especially, were closely surveilled .
  • ::Alexandre of London v. Indem. Ins. Co., 182 F. Supp. 748, 750 (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) (1960), cited in Bryan A. Garner. A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (2nd ed., 2001) p. 861