supervision
Americannoun
Usage
What does supervision mean? Supervision is the act of overseeing or watching over someone or something. Supervision is the noun form of the verb supervise, meaning to oversee or watch over. You can supervise a project, but most of the time supervision means supervising people, especially parents supervising their children or a manager or supervisor supervising their employees. Someone or something being supervised is said to be under supervision. When it’s used in the context of adults watching children, the word often appears in the phrases parental supervision and adult supervision. Children or other people who can’t be left alone are said to need constant supervision. Example: All children in this building must be under adult supervision.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of supervision
1615–25; < Medieval Latin supervīsiōn- (stem of supervīsiō ) oversight, equivalent to super- super- + vīsiōn- vision
Explanation
When you keep an eye on someone, that's supervision. Small children require supervision when they're swimming, and a middle school math class needs supervision while they're taking a quiz. To watch over and keep people (or animals) safe, or to watch and manage them while they work, is to supervise them. The act of doing this is supervision. If your boss lets you work without supervision, that means that she doesn't feel the need to observe you while you get your job done. Supervision and supervise stem from the Latin roots super, "over," and videre, "to see."
Vocabulary lists containing supervision
myPerspectives 7.1
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Employment, List 1
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Selection Vocabulary 3, Unit 1
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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.
National governments with conflicting interests have balked at ceding control in critical fields that experts say most urgently need reshaping, including defense and foreign policy, financial supervision and labor laws.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 6, 2026
Patients currently being treated privately with a 2.4mg semaglutide injection can switch to daily semaglutide 25mg tablets, with medical supervision.
From BBC • Jul. 6, 2026
The study was led by PhD student Idan Sheizaf under the supervision of Prof. Ariel Chipman at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From Science Daily • Jul. 6, 2026
FSD is capable of doing most of the driving most of the time, but still requires human supervision all of the time.
From Barron's • Jun. 29, 2026
I may not leave the island without adult supervision.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
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.
