What does stalking mean?
Stalking means following, watching, or pursuing someone with persistent and unwanted attention. In contemporary public and legal usage, it usually denotes conduct that frightens, harasses, or threatens a person, often involving repeated messages, surveillance, following, or attempts to force contact. Specific legal definitions differ across jurisdictions, but the word generally implies a sustained course of attention rather than an isolated encounter. Stalking can also describe the older, noncriminal activity of following prey or moving toward a target with care and stealth. The word is therefore both strongly associated with abuse and harassment and connected to the older English sense of moving cautiously behind cover. Modern uses often appear in discussions of personal safety, criminal law, and domestic abuse, making it important to distinguish deliberate unwanted pursuit from ordinary, consensual observation or attention.
To follow, watch, or pursue another person persistently, especially in a way that causes fear or intimidation; also, to approach an animal or target stealthily.
"The message warned him to stop stalking his ex-partner."
When used for criminal or abusive conduct, it normally refers to repeated and unwanted attention or contact.
The persistent following, monitoring, or unwanted attention directed at another person, especially when it is intimidating or constitutes harassment.
"The court treated the recorded calls and messages as evidence of stalking."
This legal and social sense is common in modern usage, although the precise elements of the offence vary by jurisdiction.
This plural is possible but uncommon in ordinary prose; it is more likely in legal, journalistic, or classificatory contexts.
"The report documented several separate stalkings."
Stalking is not merely following someone: modern laws often describe it as a course of unwanted attention that makes a victim feel unsafe.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does stalking come from?
Stalking is the present participle and gerund of stalk, formed by adding the suffix -ing. The verb comes from Old English stalkian, meaning to move stealthily or approach cautiously, and ultimately relates to an old Germanic root associated with moving or stepping carefully. Its older hunting sense developed naturally from the idea of approaching prey without being noticed, while the modern sense of persistently pursuing or intimidating a person arose much later.
Related word forms
How stalking is actually used
The word has a serious legal and social meaning in modern English: repeated unwanted attention, contact, or surveillance that causes fear or distress. Legal definitions vary by jurisdiction. Its older senses of pursuing prey or moving stealthily remain neutral.
Easily confused with stalking
Stalking means following or watching someone, whereas stacking means arranging objects in a pile or filling a workplace with tasks.