überwachtet

überwachtet is the past participle of the German verb überwachen, which means “to monitor,” “to supervise,” or “to keep under surveillance.” As a participle, it is used both in compound tenses (e.g., “ist überwacht worden”) and as an adjective (e.g., “ein überwacht es System”). The form is derived from the prefix über‑ (over, above) combined with the verb wachen (“to watch”), literally “to watch over” or “to keep a close eye on.”

In contemporary German, überwacht appears in contexts ranging from technical descriptions of security systems to legal discussions of privacy rights. For instance, a statement such as “Die öffentlichen Plätze sind überwacht” indicates that public areas are under surveillance, usually by cameras or other monitoring devices. The term is also used metaphorically to describe situations of intense scrutiny, such as “sein Handeln wird von den Medien überwacht” (his actions are being monitored by the media). In legal texts, überwacht often relates to regulations governing data collection, wiretapping, or workplace observation, emphasizing the balance between security interests and individual privacy.

Grammatically, überwacht behaves like a regular weak adjective: it can be declined according to case, gender, and number (e.g., “überwachter Bereich,” “überwachte Personen”). As a past participle, it forms the perfect tense with the auxiliary verb sein or haben depending on the transitivity of überwachen (“sein” with intransitive senses, “haben” with transitive). The word is part of a broader lexical family that includes Überwachung (“surveillance”) and Überwachungsbehörde (“surveillance authority”).