noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Received-Pronunciation:/pəˈnɒptɪkɒn/
Received-Pronunciation:/pæˈ-/
General-American:/pəˈnɑptɪˌkɑn/
General-American:/pæˈ-/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A kind of projector in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A type of prison where all the cells are visible from the center, particularly if it is not possible for those in a cell to know if they are being watched.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1787 Jeremy Bentham: Panopticon: or, the inspection-house. Panopticon: or, the inspection-house. Containing the idea of a new principle of construction applicable to any sort of establishment, in which Persons of any Description are to be kept under inspection. And in particular to: penitentiary-houses, poor-houses, prisons, manufactories, houses of industry, mad-houses, work-houses, hospitals, and schools. . . Now as to safe custody. Upon the Panopticon plan at least, absolute solitude is equally unnecessary to this purpose. Towards effecting an escape, what can two or three do more than one, confined as they are by iron grates while they are within the prison, and by walls when they are without? and in either case, never out of the eye of an inspector, who is armed and out of reach of attack, and within reach of whatever assistance he can desire? . . . I look upon escape out of a Panopticon, I have said so over and over, as an event morally impossible. But suppose it otherwise — how great the additional security which an expedient thus simple would afford!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A place in which people are subject to constant surveillance at totalitarian command.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A room for the exhibition of novelties.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
a circular prison with cells distributed around a central surveillance station; proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: prison, prison house
6
noun
Meaning 6
an area where everything is visible
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: area
Narrower terms: showroom, salesroom, saleroom
History
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὀπτικός (optikós, “visible”). Coined by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1787.
Across languages
Translations
20 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Catalan:
panòptic
— type of prison
Chinese Mandarin:
圓形監獄 /圆形监狱
(yuánxíng jiānyù)
— type of prison
Finnish:
panoptikon
— type of prison
French:
panoptique
— type of prison
French:
panopticon
— type of prison
German:
Panoptikum
— type of prison
Greek:
πανοπτικό
(panoptikó)
— type of prison
Italian:
panottico
— type of prison
Japanese:
パノプティコン
(panoputikon)
— type of prison
Polish:
panoptikon
— type of prison
Portuguese:
panóptico
— type of prison
Russian:
пано́птикум
(panóptikum)
— type of prison
Spanish:
panóptico
— type of prison
Bulgarian:
паноптикум
(panoptikum)
— room for the exhibition of novelties
Finnish:
panoptikon
— room for the exhibition of novelties
German:
Panoptikum
— room for the exhibition of novelties
Japanese:
パノプティコン
(panoputikon)
— room for the exhibition of novelties
Macedonian:
паноптикум
(panoptikum)
— room for the exhibition of novelties
Polish:
panoptikum
— room for the exhibition of novelties
Russian:
пано́птикум
(panóptikum)
— room for the exhibition of novelties
