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.
At the Fed, bank lobbyists pushing for lighter small-bank regulation have won an influential ally: Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the Fed’s top bank regulator, for whom community banking is personal.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
Fed Gov. Michael Barr will give a speech at 8:30 a.m. and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will speak at 1:45 p.m.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026
Gov. Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman both spoke publicly on Friday after markets nearly priced out rate cuts entirely for 2026.
From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026
Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will speak at 1 p.m., and minutes of the Fed’s January policy meeting are due at 2 p.m.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 18, 2026
In the six months following the news of its troubles with the Federal Reserve and the Office of Thrift Supervision, Capital One’s stock traded in a narrow band around $30 a share.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
