panoptic
adjective
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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
Joseph Bernstein, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025
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
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
This was hardly the first significant English poetry anthology, but Quiller-Couch’s attempt to go panoptic, to view with clarity two-thirds of a millennium of verse, pointed to something new.
—Brad Leithauser, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2022
Cheeky or humble, a name like Tiny Universe belies the wide cosmology above Karl Denson, a panoptic saxophonist and bandleader at home in any constellation of the blues – whether abreast of Lenny Kravitz and The Rolling Stones, or as helmsman of his own vessel.
—Nathan Rizzo | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 5 Jan. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Panoptic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/panoptic. Accessed 26 Oct. 2025.
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panoptic
adjective
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