watchful
Syllables: watch·fulUK/ˈwɒt͡ʃ.fəl//ˈwɔt͡ʃ.fəl/
watchful adjective: fully observant, vigilant, or aware.
Adjective
watchful (comparative more watchful, superlative most watchful)
- Fully observant, vigilant, or aware.
- The teacher kept a watchful eye on her pupils during the school trip.
- But there was so much at stake that I had to take some risk—though even when I was far away there has never been a day when the Shire has not been guarded by watchful eyes.1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “The Shadow of the Past”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published...
- Synonyms:
- jealous
watchful meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
watchful in Hindi
- observant, vigilant and aware
- सजग sajag
watchful in Urdu
- watchful; vigilant
- چالاک cālāk
watchful in Bengali
- observant, vigilant and aware
- সতর্ক śotork
watchful in Malayalam
- അപ്രമത്തയായ, ജാഗ്രതയായ, ഉണർച്ചയുളള
More languagesFewer languages
- watchful in Odia
- ସତର୍କ satarka
- watchful in Sanskrit
- प्रबुध् prabudh
Examples of watchful in a sentence
- Despite the watchful nature of the passing gazelles, the leopard lay unspotted under the bush.
- I read all of Tolkien there, even the frickin' Silmarillion, under Monica's watchful nerdship.
- He is also ever watchful of the spiritual condition of his sheep.
Synonyms of watchful
Forms of watchful
| comparative | more watchful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most watchful |
Origin of watchful
From Middle English waccheful, equivalent to watch + -ful. Compare West Frisian waaks (“watchful”), Dutch waaks, waakzaam (“watchful”), German wachsam (“watchful”), Swedish vaksam (“watchful”).
Words formed from watchful
Phrases with watchful
Questions about watchful
- What does watchful mean?
- Watchful means fully observant, vigilant, or aware.
- What is watchful in Hindi?
- Watchful in Hindi is सजग (sajag). See Watchful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is watchful?
- Watchful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce watchful?
- Watchful is pronounced /ˈwɒt͡ʃ.fəl/ (UK).
Words near watchful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: watchful (page history and authors); چالاک (Urdu) (page history and authors); watchful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ସତର୍କ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-watchful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “watchful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/watchful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.