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Webster 1913 Edition

Panopticon

Pa-nop′ti-con

,

Noun.

[NL. See

, and

.]

1.

A prison so contructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen.

2.

A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Definition 2024

panopticon

panopticon

English

Noun

panopticon ‎(plural panopticons)

A type of prison designed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham wherein all the cells are visible from the center of the building. It engenders a feeling of being watched.
A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Translations

type of prison

Chinese:
Mandarin: 圓形監獄, 圆形监狱 ‎(yuánxíng jiānyù)
Finnish: panoptikon
French: panoptique (fr) m, panopticon m

German: Panoptikum (de) n
Japanese: パノプティコン ‎(panoputikon)
Portuguese: panóptico m
Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m ‎(panóptikum)

room for the exhibition of novelties

Finnish: panoptikon
German: Panoptikum (de) n

Japanese: パノプティコン ‎(panoputikon)
Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m ‎(panóptikum)

Quotations

For usage examples of this term, see Citations:panopticon.