Word of the Day:

1 : to keep watch; especially : to supervise students at an examination

2 : supervise, monitor

Professors will take turns invigilating exams during the finals period.

"Since I have so often been asked about the mechanics of the job [of restaurant reviewer], it seems worth mentioning a few here…. In places designed for group eating, I often made up a group, though I tended to invigilate what was ordered: duplicate orders were banned and no one got to say, 'I think I'll have a steak.'" — Peter Calder, The New Zealand Herald, 24 Dec. 2017

Keep your eyes open and you're sure to spot a few relatives of today's word. Invigilate is a descendant of the Latin verb vigilare, meaning "to stay awake." As you may have guessed, vigilare is the ancestor of our adjective vigilant ("alertly watchful"), and it also gives us reveille ("a signal to wake up in the morning," via French réveillez) and surveillance ("close watch, supervision," via French surveiller). Invigilate has been a member of the English language since the mid-16th century.