Supervision

How to spell supervision

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce supervision

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does supervision mean?

1. nounThe act of overseeing, directing, or watching over a person, task, or activity to ensure it is done properly.

Supervision in a sentence

• The trainee worked under close supervision for the first three months.

• Young children should use the pool only with adult supervision.

Where does supervision come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb videre, meaning 'to see', and its participle stem vis-, which also gives us 'vision', 'visible', and 'television'. Medieval Latin combined this with the prefix super-, meaning 'over' or 'above', to form supervidere, literally 'to look over' or 'to oversee'. By the early 1600s English had formed 'supervision' as the noun describing the act of overseeing work or conduct from a position of authority. The sense of watching over for the sake of control or guidance has stayed remarkably stable ever since. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: the 'i' in '-vis-' is easy to hear clearly, but writers sometimes muddle the smooth run of super- plus -vision, so anchoring it to the familiar word 'vision' (super + vision) keeps it secure.

How the word is built

• super- (over, above)
• vis (from videre: to see)
• -ion (noun of action)