supervisor
Americannoun
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supervisors
plural
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a person who supervises workers or the work done by others; superintendent.
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Education. an official responsible for assisting teachers in the preparation of syllabuses, in devising teaching methods, etc., in a department of instruction, especially in public schools.
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(in some U.S. states) the chief elected administrative officer of a township, who is often also a member of the governing board of the county.
noun
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a person who manages or supervises
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a foreman or forewoman
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(in some British universities) a tutor supervising the work, esp research work, of a student
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(in some US schools) an administrator running a department of teachers
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(in some US states) the elected chief official of a township or other subdivision of a county
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obsolete a spectator
Usage
What does supervisor mean? A supervisor is someone who oversees and provides direction for someone or something. More simply, a supervisor is someone who supervises. It’s most commonly used in the context of the workplace to refer to a type of manager who supervises other employees. The adjective supervisory describes things that involve supervision. A supervisor’s role can be described as supervisory. Supervisor can be used more specifically in the context of education to refer to a type of official or tutor or in the context of government to refer to a type of elected local official who serves on a board with other supervisors. Example: The key to being a good supervisor is to give your employees enough space to do their jobs, instead of constantly standing over their shoulders.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of supervisor
1425–75; late Middle English < Medieval Latin supervīsor, equivalent to supervid-, stem of supervidēre to supervise + -tor -tor, with dt > s
Explanation
A supervisor is the person in charge at your job, who monitors you as you work. Your supervisor prepared you for the world of sneaker sales, and makes sure you don't give them away free to your friends. To supervise means to oversee, so a supervisor is someone whose job it is to oversee everyone else as they work. If you're the supervisor of a big kitchen, you probably won't spend time chopping onions, but instead wander around making sure everyone has their hair back and is using the right ingredients and working quickly. Sometimes in very complex problems, a whole organization can be a supervisor, like a city department that oversees the police.
Vocabulary lists containing supervisor
Like A Boss: Words for the Person in Charge
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List 7
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Gail Ann Myers was born July 23, 1945, in St. Louis, and, after earning a marketing degree from Southern Illinois University, worked as a customer-service supervisor at Ralston Purina in her hometown.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The clearest exception was from academia, where a scientist had sued her supervisor alleging that he “deleted her name and presented a paper as his own in a class he taught.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A supervisor for the ministry admitted that had they read the statement they "would have challenged Tom", and that it "read terribly", the report found.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
"For us, it's a little bit hard to use electric," explains Carlos Camarena, a supervisor for a California landscaping company.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
I mentioned this to David Runciman, my supervisor.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
County supervisors to stick with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
She has cut the Federal Reserve Board’s staff of bank supervisors by about 30%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
"A lot of people are going to get replaced, not just actors: crew members, visual effects supervisors," the 65-year-old, who picked up a lifetime achievement award in Venice on Wednesday, told the audience.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
That was also the reason given by public-safety-tech company Axon Enterprise when earlier this year it cut hundreds of manager roles and reassigned small-team supervisors to individual-contributor roles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Now Jesses supervisors wanted him to appear absorbed in something conventional, even when he had nothing to do.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
