Difference Between Superviser and Supervisor (With Table)

English language and its literature are huge and sometimes tricky to understand. Sometimes, the words might sound the same but have different meanings. The terms that are spelt with the same sound but have different meanings are called “homophones”. Homophones can be the words that are available in the dictionary, but sometimes, we come across the terms like “Superviser”.

Superviser vs Supervisor

The main difference between Superviser and Supervisor is that Superviser is a misspelt term of the word “supervisor” whereas Supervisor means a person who looks after the work and official tasks of a person or a group of people. These two terms sound the same as ‘o’ in the term ‘supervisor’ is spelt as ‘e’ sound.

Superviser is a misspelt word and has no exact meaning. It is a word that has no meaning or existence. Its presence is not noted by any dictionary (be it Oxford dictionary, Merriam-Webster dictionary, Collins English dictionary, Urban Dictionary, or Cambridge English dictionary). There is no use in searching the word “superviser” on google, as it does not give the results.

A supervisor is a person who manages any task or work. According to different professions, the definition of the word changes. For industrial relations or official work, the meaning of the word changes as a “foreman or forewoman”. In educational work, the meaning of the word changes to “a tutor who is looking after/supervising the work of a student”.

Comparison Table Between Superviser and Supervisor

Parameters of Comparison

Superviser

Supervisor

Definition

No existence in the English dictionary

A person who looks after every work assigned to him/her.

Synonyms

None

Manager, Superintendent, Executive, Administrator, etc.

Abbreviations

None

“Supv”, “Supr”, “Supvr”, “S”

Antonyms

No evidence found

People, Follower, Worker, Employee

Example

No sentence formation due to misspelling.

The supervisor was responsible for the production of a show.
The Supervisor will explain in detail your new job role.

What is Superviser?

There is no such evidence found for the term ‘superviser’ in the old English or modern era English. There is no such term called “superviser” in the English language. It has been misspelt or a spelling mistake. There are no traces found of the term “superviser” in the dictionary and google as well. As it is not a word, we can’t form sentences by the term “Superviser”.

In English, a word’s pronunciation may or may not correspond to its spelling. In this regard, French is another language like English where a single pronunciation is applied to several other words. English, on the other hand, contains a large number of vowel sounds, silent letters, and words borrowed from a variety of languages. As a result, the English language comprises many homophones.

Strangely, the word ‘superviser’ has no meaning and existence in the dictionary, but still sounds the same as ‘supervisor’. The letter ‘e’ in the term superviser is replaced by the letter ‘o’ in the word supervisor. If supervisor was a word, there should have been some traces of its existence in the old/new dictionary as well as on the largest site-dictionary google.

What is Supervisor?

A supervisor is a person who oversees any official work or task done by people, workers, or employees. He/she is authorized for supervising the work. The major role of the supervisor is managing the tasks performed by the workers or group of people. The supervisor works for the betterment of the organization and takes charge of all the responsibilities efficiently.

The English language is versatile and has rich abbreviations. Be it old or new English language, it is observed that many words in the literature have the same sounds when spelt but their actual spelling is different. This confuses stating the right word with correct sound and spelling.

An employee can be called a supervisor when he/she has the rights and authority to perform the following the actions like giving instructions to the subordinates and holding the responsibility of the other workers to ensure the task is completed on time.

The role of the supervisor is to respond to employee needs, challenges and satisfaction since they have direct daily contact with them. A supervisor’s primary role is to guarantee that a group of workers completes the allotted amount of work on time and within acceptable quality, cost and safety standards. An example of the same is: Your project Supervisor is a well-versed individual; Our Supervisor is friendly with us and helps us in other activities.

Main Differences Between Superviser and Supervisor

  1. Superviser does not exist in the English dictionary whereas supervisor is a person who manages the work submitted by subordinates.
  2. The letter ‘e’ in superviser is replaced by the letter ‘o’ in the word supervisor.
  3. Superviser is a spelling mistake whereas Supervisor has the skills like leadership qualities, communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, motivational and conflict resolution skills.
  4. The supervisor looks after all the work of the employee and makes an account of the same to make sure that the work is accomplished on time. There is no such evidence found for the word “superviser”.
  5. For example, the term supervisor has been used in sentences like 1) The Supervisor helped me to explain the brief patents to my colleagues. 2) The role of Supervisor plays an important role in the construction field. Sentences can’t be made by the word “Supervisor”.

Conclusion

Hereby we can conclude that there are other such words in the dictionary that are frequently misunderstood. There are lots of mistakes in the English language that makes it difficult to know the exact meaning of the word. Some people may use these words which don’t have real meaning in the dictionary. Therefore, knowing the English language is important to avoid such mistakes.

The Supervisor does not have the right to hire or fire people, but he/she can participate in the hiring process by shortlisting the candidates and interviewing them. Nonetheless, the human resource manager will make the final decision about the hiring process. A supervisor is in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations.

References

  1. https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/a0013072
  2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14703290252934586