supervisor

English

Alternative forms

• supervisour (obsolete)

Etymology

Attested since the 15th century C.E.; from Middle English supervisor, supervisour, supervysor, supervysour, from Latin supervīsor, from supervideō, in turn from super + videō. By surface analysis, supervise +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsuːpəˌvaɪzə(ɹ)/, enPR: so͞op′ərvīz'ər

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsupɚˌvaɪzɚ/

Noun

supervisor (plural supervisors)

1. (management) A person with the official task of overseeing the work of a person or group, or of other operations and activities.
   • 1985, Drexel Library Quarterly, volume 21, page 104:

     Thus, today, even if the objective does seem "goalish," the supervisor assumes the problem inherent in trying to "accomplish" that goal will become clear to the librarian as the action plan evolves […]

   • 2001, Wendy Dobson, Gary Hufbauer, World Capital Markets‎^[1], →ISBN, page 103:

     The 1999 merger between Citibank (banking) and Travelers (insurance) created the model for megafinance and confirmed new challenges for supervisors.

   • 2012, Kathryn M. Johnson, The Insider's Guide to Supervising Government Employees‎^[2]:

     I had learned a lot about supervising by observing other supervisors—the good things and the not-so-good things they did.

2. A person who monitors someone to make sure they comply with rules or other requirements set for them.
   • 2013, Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, Vintage, published 2014, page 24:

     Kashruth fraud in Brooklyn. Seems a goon squad of fake mashgichim or kosher supervisors have been making their way around the neighborhoods pulling surprise ‘inspections’ on different shops and restaurants, selling them fancy-looking certificates to put in the window […]

3. (US) In certain states, an elected member of the governing body for a county which is called the board of supervisors.
4. (computing) A process responsible for managing other processes.
   • 1965, P. A. Crisman, The compatible time-sharing system: a programmer's guide, page 14:

     The clock burst which enables the supervisor to housekeep the console input and output and to change program status is currently set to 200 ms.

Derived terms

• script supervisor

Related terms

• supervise
• supervisee
• supervision
• supervisory

Translations

a person with the official task of overseeing the work of a person or group etc.

• Arabic: مُشْرِف m (mušrif)
• Bulgarian: ръководител (bg) m (rǎkovoditel), надзорник (bg) (nadzornik)
• Catalan: supervisor m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 監督者 / 监督者 (zh) (jiāndūzhě), 管理者 (zh) (guǎnlǐzhě), 主管 (zh) (zhǔguǎn)

• Czech: dozorce (cs) m, inspektor (cs) m, dohližitel m
• Dutch: toezichthouder (nl) m, leidinggevende (nl)
• Finnish: esimies (fi) (superior who is responsible for overseeing the work of their subordinates), valvoja (fi) (general term for anyone tasked with overseeing)
• French: superviseur (fr) m
• Galician: supervisor (gl) m
• Georgian: უფროსი (uprosi), ხელმძღვანელი (xelmʒɣvaneli), მენეჯერი (meneǯeri), ზედამხედველი (zedamxedveli), ინსპექტორი (insṗekṭori), კონტროლერი (ḳonṭroleri)
• German: Aufseher (de), Vorgesetzter (de) m
• Gothic: 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍃𐍃𐌴𐌹𐍃 m (faurstasseis)
• Greek: επόπτης (el) m (epóptis)

  Ancient: ἐπόπτης m (epóptēs), ἐπίσκοπος m (epískopos)

• Hindi: पर्यवेक्षक (paryavekṣak)
• Hungarian: munkafelügyelő (hu)
• Irish: maor m
• Italian: supervisore (it) m
• Japanese: 主管 (ja) (しゅかん, shukan), スーパーバイザー (sūpābaizā), 監督 (ja), 監察 (ja), 管理者 (ja), 管理人 (ja)
• Khmer: មេការ (mee kaa)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: چاودێر (ckb) (çawdêr)

• Miami: aahkohkinkia
• Middle English: surveyour
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oppsynsmann m

  Nynorsk: oppsynsmann m

• Plautdietsch: Äwasechta m
• Polish: naczelnik (pl) m, nadzorca (pl) m
• Portuguese: supervisor (pt) m
• Romanian: supervizor (ro) m
• Russian: нача́льник (ru) m (načálʹnik), руководи́тель (ru) m (rukovodítelʹ), (negative connotation) надсмо́трщик (ru) m (nadsmótrščik), (negative connotation) надзира́тель (ru) m (nadzirátelʹ), (manufacturing, construction) ма́стер (ru) m (máster), суперва́йзер (ru) m (supervájzɛr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: супервизор m, надзорник m, надгледник m, надређени m, претпостављени m

  Roman: supervizor (sh) m, nadzornik (sh) m, nadglednik (sh) m, nadređeni (sh) m, pretpostavljeni (sh) m

• Spanish: supervisor (es) m, director (es) m
• Swedish: handledare (sv) c, förman (sv) c
• Tagalog: tagamasid
• Yiddish: אויגהאַלטער m (oyghalter)

See also

• manager
• on-call supervisor
• superintendent

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “supervisor”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• proviruses

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˌsu.pər.biˈzo]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˌsu.pər.viˈzo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoɾ]

Noun

supervisor m (plural supervisors, feminine supervisora)

1. supervisor

Related terms

• supervisar
• supervisió

Further reading

• “supervisor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “supervisor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “supervisor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Portuguese

Etymology

From super- +‎ visor.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoʁ/ [ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoʁ/ [ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoʁ/ [ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.peɾ.viˈzoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.pɛɾ.viˈzoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.pɛɾ.viˈzoɾ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.pɛɾ.biˈzoɾ/ [ˌsu.pɛɾ.βiˈzoɾ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.pɛɾ.viˈzo.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: su‧per‧vi‧sor

Noun

supervisor m (plural supervisores, feminine supervisora, feminine plural supervisoras)

1. (management) supervisor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /supeɾbiˈsoɾ/ [su.peɾ.β̞iˈsoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: su‧per‧vi‧sor

Noun

supervisor m (plural supervisores, feminine supervisora, feminine plural supervisoras)

1. supervisor
2. handler (e.g, a secret agent's handler)

Related terms

• supervisar
• supervisión

Further reading

• “supervisor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10