panoptic

adjective

pan·​op·​tic ˌpa-ˈnäp-tik 

: being or presenting a comprehensive or panoramic view

a panoptic view of the city

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Panoptic Has Greek Origins

The establishment of panoptic in the English language can be attributed to two inventions known as panopticons. The more well-known panopticon was conceived by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1787. Bentham’s panopticon was a circular prison with cells arranged around a central tower from which guards could see the inmates at all times. The other panopticon, also created in the 18th century, was a device containing pictures of attractions, such as European capitals, that people viewed through an opening. Considering the views that both inventions gave, it is not hard to see why panoptic (a word derived from Greek panoptēs, meaning "all-seeing") was being used by the early 19th century.

Examples of panoptic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

His deep understanding of the law and panoptic attention in the courtroom have informed his fiction ever since. — Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025

The panoptic awareness created by virality is an Eye of Sauron, a lidless and unceasing glare that will follow you to the ends of the earth. — WIRED, 1 Dec. 2022

Visitors to this point of gathering and reflection would have panoptic views of the city, with Dealey Plaza and the downtown skyline in one direction and the future Trinity park in the other. — Mark Lamster, Reimagining Dealey: We asked a team of leading designers to redesign one of Dallas' most significant spaces, 20 Oct. 2022

Visitors to Boston, today, might choose to stay at the Liberty Hotel, which transformed a panoptic prison into luxury accommodations decorated with whimsical reminders of the building’s past. — Literary Hub, 22 Apr. 2026

Through Khaled’s oddly paralyzed exile, Matar offers a beautifully panoptic portrait of London as the city of literary exile and emigration par excellence, a place where the Arab intelligentsia came in the seventies and eighties and after. — James Wood, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Greek panoptēs all-seeing, from pan- + opsesthai to be going to see — more at optic

First Known Use

1826, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for panoptic

• preoptic
• synoptic
• coptic
• optic
• supraoptic

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Medical Definition

panoptic

adjective

pan·​op·​tic (ˈ)pan-ˈäp-tik 

: permitting everything to be seen

microscopic study of tissues treated with a panoptic stain