associate professor

American  

noun

1. a teacher in a college or university who ranks above an assistant professor and below a professor.

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associate professor British  

noun

1. (in the US and Canada) a university teacher lower in rank than a full professor but higher than an assistant professor

2. (in New Zealand) a senior lecturer holding the rank below professor

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• associate professorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of associate professor

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Ellen Meade, an associate professor of economics at Duke University, said she thinks Warsh will want to demonstrate at his first press conference that there is a “new world” at the Fed.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 6, 2026

Dr Carolina Bandinelli, an associate professor at the University of Warwick, who researches dating, relationships and communication agrees that the pandemic changed dating for Gen Z.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026

It really shows there may not be a safe level,” said Cindy W. Leung, associate professor of public health nutrition at Harvard T.H.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026

“Everybody assumes money is the most important thing, that you can quote-unquote ‘buy an election’ with all that money,” said Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026

Graduate Dean George Birkhoff assured Ernest of Harvard’s high esteem for Oppenheimer “as a creative theorist” and confided that the university was willing to appoint him as an associate professor at $6,000.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik