Definition of: oversight

(ō′vər·sīt′) noun
1. An error due to inattention; an inadvertent mistake or omission.
2. Watchful supervision; superintendence. Synonyms: care, charge, command, control, direction, inspection, management, superintendence, supervision, surveillance, watch, watchfulness. Oversight strictly implies constant personal presence; superintendence requires only so much of presence or communication as to know that the superintendent's wishes are carried out; the superintendent of a railroad will personally oversee very few of its operations; the railroad company has supreme direction of all its affairs without superintendence or oversight. But a person may look over a matter in order to survey it carefully in its entirety, or he may look over it with no attention to the thing itself because his gaze and thought are concentrated on something beyond; oversight has thus two contrasted senses, in the latter sense denoting inadvertent error or omission, and in the former denoting watchful supervision. Control is chiefly used with reference to restraint or the power of restraint. Surveillance signifies watching with something of suspicion. See CARE, ERROR, NEGLECT.