Oversight

//ˈəʊvəˌsaɪt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An omission; something that is left out, missed, or forgotten. countable, uncountable

    "A small oversight at this stage can lead to big problems later."

  2. 2
    a mistake resulting from inattention wordnet
  3. 3
    Supervision or management. countable, uncountable

    "oversight mechanism"

  4. 4
    management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group wordnet
  5. 5
    Overview. countable, uncountable

    "A large map of the kingdom, in which the Protestant churches, including the Unitarian, are indicated in colors, gives a convenient oversight of the matter treated of by the writer."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    an unintentional omission resulting from failure to notice something wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To oversee; to supervise. nonstandard, transitive
  2. 2
    To suppress content in a way that removes or minimizes its visibility or viewability. Internet, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
supervisionaccountabilityadministrationaegisauspicesbalk

Example

More examples

"If an oversight is the reason why you have not paid, please send us the amount due, and let us solve the problem immediately."

Etymology

From over- + sight. Verb sense 2 is a semantic loan from German Aufsicht.

Related phrases

alternative episcopal oversight

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.