# unsupervised

/ənˈsupɝˌvaɪzd/ (US) · /ʌnsˈuːpəvˌaɪzd/ (UK) · CEFR B2 · Adjective

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/unsupervised
Updated: 2026-05-19

## Definition

not being watched or guided by an adult or a leader. You use this to describe a child or a student who is left alone to do something.

For teachers: not being monitored, guided, or controlled by an authority figure. Often used to describe children or students in a learning environment.

## Examples

- The children played unsupervised in the park.
- The school allows students to work on their projects unsupervised during the final hour of the afternoon.
- While unsupervised learning in machine learning allows systems to find patterns on their own, it often requires significantly more data than supervised methods to achieve the same level of accuracy.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.