In this paper, a highly selective sample cleanup procedure combining molecular imprinting andsolid phase extraction (MI-SPE) was developed for the isolation of toxic bentazon in surface water.The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared using bentazon as the template molecule,methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linkingmonomer. The bentazon imprinted polymer was used as a selective sorbent for the solid-phaseextraction of bentazon from surface water. An offline MI-SPE method followed by highperformance liquid chromatography was also established. To evaluate the applicability of the MIPfor separation and determination of bentazon by HPLC, general parameters for SPE including thenumber of loading solvents, washing solution and eluent, and pH of the sample were optimizedfollowing a step-by-step approach. The calibration curve was linear in the range of (0.05 to 0.6 µg L−1). The standard deviation of (2.2 %) and detection limit of the method (0.05 µg L−1) wereobtained for sensor level response. It was shown that recoveries up to approximately 97.0 % fromspiked surface water samples could be obtained. It was demonstrated that the proposed MI-SPEHPLC method could be applied to the direct determination of bentazon in surface water. Manuscript profile