panopticon

noun

pan·​op·​ti·​con pə-ˈnäp-ti-ˌkän 

pa-

plural panopticons

1

: an optical instrument combining the telescope and microscope

2

: a circular prison built with cells arranged radially so that a guard at a central position can see all the prisoners

Examples of panopticon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These might seem like separate systems, and therefore different from the kind of centralized panopticon imagined in the pulp sci-fi our parents might have read. —Joe Wilkins, Futurism, 29 Apr. 2026

Captive in bucolic panopticons, their lives are at once aesthetically alluring, depressingly regressive and anthropologically fascinating. —Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2026

Many of the fragments spreading through the digital panopticon comprise real footage of real events, but their cumulative effect is far from a cogent portrait. —Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2026

Her social media panopticon is already in so many ways bigger than the 600 movie theaters that an independent film might play in. —Nate Freeman, Vanity Fair, 11 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1742, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for panopticon

• agamemnon
• automaton
• diencephalon
• phenomenon
• aileron
• antiphon
• autobahn
• carillon
• castellan
• celadon
• cephalon
• chitosan