Monitors

How to spell monitors

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monitors

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monitors mean?

1. nounDisplay screens or devices used to show or track information.
2. verbObserves, checks, or keeps track of something over a period of time.

Monitors in a sentence

• noun

  The trading desk had three monitors stacked side by side.

• verb

  The night nurse carefully monitors the patient's blood pressure every hour.

• noun

  The hospital ward was lined with monitors tracking each patient's vital signs.

• verb

  A software tool quietly monitors the network for unusual activity.

Where does monitors come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin monitor, meaning 'one who warns or advises', which was formed from the verb monere, 'to warn, remind, or advise'. The same monere root sits behind a whole family of English words, including 'admonish', 'premonition', and 'monument', each carrying a faint sense of warning or reminding. English adopted 'monitor' in the sixteenth century, first for a person whose job was to advise or caution others, then for a senior pupil given oversight duties in a school. The meaning broadened over time to cover anything that checks, observes, or keeps watch, and by the twentieth century it attached naturally to electronic devices that display or track information. The spelling preserves the Latin agent ending -or rather than the more common English -er, which is the small trap that catches writers who expect 'moniter'.

How the word is built

• monit- (from Latin monere: to warn, advise)
• -or (agent/noun suffix)
• -s (plural/third-person)