as in guardians
a person or group that watches over someone or something
a lone sentinel kept watch over the fort
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Recent Examples of sentinels
Here and there, fire, wind, and flood would have broken the forest into a mosaic of old and new, grass and forest, shrubs and sentinels.
—
Literary Hub, 10 June 2026
At the end of one of the castle’s walkways, after a turn or two—by electric cart, bicycle, or on foot—and with the air filled with the scent of pine, rosemary, and jasmine, the sentinels are waiting, carved into the rock where the fort’s cannons were once located.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
Corkie putting the snake into the tub looks like the sentinels or the wire going into people’s pods.
—Nick Newman, IndieWire, 1 June 2026
And for decades, billboards with Smart’s smiling face stood like sentinels along Highway 101, silently urging anyone with information to come forward.
—Chelsea Bailey, CNN Money, 8 May 2026
Precedent for this idea comes from Poland, where many cities already use freshwater mussels as living sentinels of water quality, wired with sensors that register when the animals clamp their shells shut in response to pollutants.
—IEEE Spectrum, 31 Mar. 2026
That majestic array of green-gray gneiss sentinels may be the most conceptually elaborate Neolithic monument in Europe.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Arizona’s iconic saguaro cactuses seem like immobile sentinels standing watch over the Sonoran desert landscape.
—John Leos, AZCentral.com, 10 Nov. 2025
The satellite, Space Weather Follow-On L1 (SWFO-L1), is launching just in time, as scientists warn our aging fleet of solar sentinels is reaching the end of its life.
—Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 19 Sep. 2025
Literary Hub, 10 June 2026
At the end of one of the castle’s walkways, after a turn or two—by electric cart, bicycle, or on foot—and with the air filled with the scent of pine, rosemary, and jasmine, the sentinels are waiting, carved into the rock where the fort’s cannons were once located.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
Corkie putting the snake into the tub looks like the sentinels or the wire going into people’s pods.
—Nick Newman, IndieWire, 1 June 2026
And for decades, billboards with Smart’s smiling face stood like sentinels along Highway 101, silently urging anyone with information to come forward.
—Chelsea Bailey, CNN Money, 8 May 2026
Precedent for this idea comes from Poland, where many cities already use freshwater mussels as living sentinels of water quality, wired with sensors that register when the animals clamp their shells shut in response to pollutants.
—IEEE Spectrum, 31 Mar. 2026
That majestic array of green-gray gneiss sentinels may be the most conceptually elaborate Neolithic monument in Europe.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Arizona’s iconic saguaro cactuses seem like immobile sentinels standing watch over the Sonoran desert landscape.
—John Leos, AZCentral.com, 10 Nov. 2025
The satellite, Space Weather Follow-On L1 (SWFO-L1), is launching just in time, as scientists warn our aging fleet of solar sentinels is reaching the end of its life.
—Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 19 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sentinels
Noun
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Robotic grid guardians Power utilities in southwestern China are using robotic snakes to inspect power lines, showcasing a new approach to infrastructure monitoring in environments where drones face limitations.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
11 June 2026
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In places where the program is active, parents and legal guardians who are verified riders can create accounts for teens.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacbee.com,
10 June 2026
Noun
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Some of the allegations included removing protective plastic guards covering actresses’ vaginas during the filming of intimate scenes, and Franco getting angry when actresses didn’t want to go topless.—
Cerys Davies,
Los Angeles Times,
15 June 2026
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The Pacers, too, sent wave after wave of bigger stronger guards to push Brunson off his spots and disrupt the Knicks’ flow.—
Sean Woods,
Rolling Stone,
15 June 2026
Noun
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The college currently consists of 11 officers of arms, who undertake the genealogical research and act as custodians of the records.—
Helen Lewis,
The Atlantic,
9 June 2026
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Obama stopped by the Jackson Park facility to hear personal stories from custodians, security guards, visitor services staffers, and more.—
Todd Feurer,
CBS News,
8 June 2026
Noun
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In early modernity, women were the keepers of this obsessive temporality of attention—of the current of time that flows beneath event, beneath change.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 June 2026
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Dock at the southern edge of the island and climb the stairs to see the orchards and gardens planted by former lighthouse keepers and tended by the National Park Service today.—
Katherine Lawless,
Travel + Leisure,
13 June 2026
Noun
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The juvenile bear’s wander across campus late Thursday and early Friday prompted an advisory to students and a search by UC Davis police and wardens from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as Yolo County Animal Control.—
Allison Gibson,
Sacbee.com,
15 May 2026
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The state wardens and other cops who knew and worked with Bob Markle weren’t just honoring his memory by attending his funeral.—
Dave Duffey,
Outdoor Life,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The soldiers would have stayed as sentries before and after the performance, symbolically guarding the legacy of Taiwan’s founder.—
Timothy Nerozzi,
The Washington Examiner,
13 Mar. 2026
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Police had taped off several square blocks around Sixth Street, while local police and federal authorities, including Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, were at the site, according to Austin police officers serving as sentries.—
Jack Myer,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Francis Ford Coppola meditates on the question of who is watching the watchmen in The Conversation, a neo-noir mystery thriller about the human side of surveillance.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
6 June 2026
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Ideas like reparative journalism and sousveillance — an antonym for surveillance, concerning watching the watchmen in a reversal of power — earn fleeting mentions, but are never the focus of actual inquiry.—
Siddhant Adlakha,
Variety,
14 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sentinels.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sentinels. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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