Advisor

How to spell advisor

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce advisor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does advisor mean?

1. nounA person who gives expert or official advice in a particular field.

Advisor in a sentence

• The financial advisor recommended spreading the investment across several funds.

• Each new student is assigned an academic advisor for the first term.

Where does advisor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb visum, the past participle of videre, which simply meant 'to see'. Combined with the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'towards', the idea of looking towards a matter and forming a judgement on it gave Vulgar Latin advisare, 'to consider' or 'to look at'. English took this through Old French aviser and later adviser, where it became 'advise', meaning to offer a considered opinion. The noun for the person who gives that counsel was then formed by adding an agent ending, producing both 'adviser' with -er and 'advisor' with -or; the -or form was reinforced by the Latin-flavoured pattern seen in words such as 'supervisor' and is the variant authored here. Because both endings are genuinely correct, the trap is simply remembering which one you intended, since the schwa sound in the final syllable gives no clue whether to write -er or -or.

How the word is built

• advis- (from advise: to give counsel)
• -or (agent suffix: one who does)

Words that sound like advisor

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• adviser: A person who gives expert advice or guidance, often in a professional or official role.