oversight

American  

[oh-ver-sahyt] / ˈoʊ vərˌsaɪt /

noun

• oversights
  plural

1. an omission or error due to carelessness.

   My bank statement is full of oversights.

   Synonyms:

   slip, blunder, mistake

2. unintentional failure to notice or consider; lack of proper attention.

   Owing to my oversight, the letter was sent unsigned.

   Synonyms:

   inattention, neglect, lapse, slip, blunder, mistake

3. supervision; watchful care.

   a person responsible for the oversight of the organization.

   Synonyms:

   surveillance, control, direction, management

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oversight British  

/ ˈəʊvəˌsaɪt /

noun

1. an omission or mistake, esp one made through failure to notice something

2. supervision

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• oversights
  plural

Etymology

Origin of oversight

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English; over- + sight

Explanation

An oversight is a mistake you make when you're not paying full attention. Your failure to add the sugar to the cookies was an unfortunate oversight — you were so engrossed in texting that you forgot it. Oversights are not intentional mistakes. Usually they're just the result of inattention. If you make an oversight in your inspection of a nuclear power plant and it later goes into meltdown, you'll get fired. An inspector is supposed to pay attention. But if you forgot your cousin's birthday because you're busy taking care of Grandma, that's a forgivable oversight. Oversight is also the act of supervising something, like the construction of a dam, or a high school prom.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

oversight oversights

Large amounts of vitamins such as niacin can be toxic and may cause harmful effects if they are taken without appropriate medical oversight.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

In that case, we later learned, the department wouldn’t be involved because state law doesn’t include any mechanism for oversight.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

Warren, who had oversight of NOS in its first years at St Thomas's, told the court he initially believed Brain's"controlling" nature helped to get things done.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

Today’s advanced AI models have something critical to human oversight called a “chain of thought”: It’s a written record meant to shed light on the data they process and the actions they take.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

However, since the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans did not have zero, the Western calendar does not have any zeros—an oversight that would cause problems millennia later.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

But many cases come down to small oversights — and the people caught off guard are often the ones who thought they had it taken care of.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

Alejandro, the gas station attendant, said he felt there were "too few oversights" of mining projects.

From Barron's ● May 23, 2026

Mistakes or oversights in DOT regulations could lead to lawsuits or even injuries and deaths in the transportation system.

From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2026

The report blamed the upgrade delays on a number of oversights, including failure to develop a plan for managing all of its facilities projects, which are instead proceeding separately.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025

And the messy apartment I was sure to walk into; the flight numbers and so forth left deliberately, so it now seemed, by the phone; both were oversights unworthy of Henry.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Related Words

• control
• handling
• inspection
• maintenance
• management
• surveillance