Watchful

//ˈwɒt͡ʃ.fəl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Fully observant, vigilant, or aware.

    "The teacher kept a watchful eye on her pupils during the school trip."

Adjective
  1. 1
    engaged in or accustomed to close observation wordnet
  2. 2
    carefully observant or attentive; on the lookout for possible danger wordnet
  3. 3
    experiencing or accompanied by sleeplessness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
alertheedfulobservantanxiousadvertentagog

Example

More examples

"He was watchful for any sign of diabetes."

Etymology

From Middle English waccheful, equivalent to watch + -ful. Compare West Frisian waaks (“watchful”), Dutch waaks, waakzaam (“watchful”), German wachsam (“watchful”), Swedish vaksam (“watchful”).

Related phrases

ever-watchfulwatchful waiting

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.