Supervised

How to spell supervised

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce supervised

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does supervised mean?

1. verbWatched over and directed a person, activity, or process to make sure it was done correctly.
2. adjectiveCarried out under the watchful direction or control of someone in charge.

Supervised in a sentence

• verb

  The senior nurse supervised the new recruits during their first shift.

• adjective

  Children use the pool only during supervised sessions.

• verb

  An experienced examiner supervised the test to keep it fair.

• adjective

  The offender was released on a supervised programme with weekly check-ins.

Where does supervised come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin supervidere, formed from super, meaning 'over' or 'above', and videre, meaning 'to see'. Put together, the parts literally describe the act of looking over something, which is still exactly what a supervisor does. English took it in via the Medieval Latin past participle supervisus during the early 1600s, when 'supervise' meant simply to inspect or oversee work. The vis root for seeing is a busy one, surfacing in everyday relatives such as 'vision', 'visible', and 'video', and remembering that connection helps fix the -vis- in the middle of the spelling. The ending -ed then marks the ordinary past tense, so the only real care needed is keeping the single s and v rather than doubling either.

How the word is built

• super- (over, above)
• vis (see, from Latin videre)
• -ed (past tense)