Meaning & use
supply teacher
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritish
A teacher who is not a regular employee of a school and fills in when a teacher is away.
Grammar: Countable: say 'a supply teacher' or 'supply teachers'. The American word is 'substitute teacher'.
Patterns
- work as a supply teacher
- a supply teacher at a school
- call in a supply teacher
When Mrs. Lee was sick, the school hired a supply teacher for the week.
She works as a supply teacher at several primary schools.
The class behaves differently when a supply teacher takes over.
Word forms
| plural | supply teachers |
|---|
Common combinations
- work as a supply teacher
- After graduating, he worked as a supply teacher for two years.
- a supply teacher at a school
- She is a supply teacher at the local high school.
- call in a supply teacher
- The head teacher had to call in a supply teacher at short notice.
- a supply teacher shortage
- Many regions are facing a supply teacher shortage.
Synonyms and how they differ
- substitute teacher
- The standard American term for the same job; use it in US contexts.
- cover teacher
- A British term used when the teacher is only covering a single lesson.
Word family
- supply teaching noun
- The work of filling in for absent teachers.
Commonly confused: supply teacher or supply chain?
supply teacher vs supply chain
'Supply chain' is about goods and companies, not schools; the shared word 'supply' causes confusion.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'supply teacher' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A supply teacher replaces an absent teacher, so option 1 fits. Option 2 confuses it with a delivery worker, and options 3 and 4 use the phrase with the wrong meaning or grammar.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “supply teacher”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.