Monitor

How to spell monitor

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monitor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monitor mean?

1. nounA screen used to display the visual output of a computer or other device.
2. verbTo observe, check or keep track of something over a period of time.
3. nounA person who supervises, checks or keeps order, such as a pupil given responsibility in a school.

Monitor in a sentence

• noun

  She connected a second monitor to her laptop for extra workspace.

• verb

  Nurses monitor each patient closely after surgery.

• noun

  The playground monitor kept the younger children safe at break.

• noun

  The old monitor flickered every time the lights came on.

• verb

  The bank will monitor the account for unusual activity.

• noun

  Each exam room had a monitor to ensure fairness.

Where does monitor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin monitor, meaning 'one who warns or reminds', which was formed from the verb monere, 'to warn, advise or remind'. The same monere root sits behind a surprising family of English words, including 'admonish', 'premonition' and even 'monster', which the Romans understood as a warning sign from the gods. English adopted monitor in the 1500s, originally for a person who gave warning or advice, and the schoolroom sense of a senior pupil keeping order followed soon after. The meaning of a device that keeps watch, such as a screen or a medical instrument, is a much later, twentieth-century development, as machines took over the watching once done by people. Because the middle vowel is an unstressed schwa, writers sometimes hesitate over the spelling, but remembering the warning sense behind monere helps fix the 'o' in the middle.

How the word is built

• mon- (from Latin monere: to warn, advise)
• -itor (agent/instrument suffix meaning 'one who, or thing which, does')