adjunct professor

American  

noun

1. a professor employed by a college or university for a specific purpose or length of time and often part-time.

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Usage

What does adjunct professor mean? An adjunct professor is a college or university professor whose employment is temporary or part-time. Adjunct professor (often shortened to simply adjunct)  is typically used to indicate that a professor does not have tenure or is not eligible for tenure. Tenure is a status granted to some professors (after they reach a certain amount of experience) that makes their position essentially permanent. Due to the temporary or part-time status of adjunct professors, this title sometimes carries a connotation that associates it with the difficulties of being in such a position, such as job insecurity and lack of benefits. Example: My math professor is an adjunct professor so he might not be here next semester.

Etymology

Origin of adjunct professor

First recorded in 1820–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adjunct professor

An adjunct professor at Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, he’s taught ethics, antitrust, copyright and patent law.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Schiffman was the study's corresponding author and an adjunct professor in the joint department of biomedical engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

Elliott Hazen, an adjunct professor in the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says that hasn't happened in a decade.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

Still, he had to give up his job as an adjunct professor to make time for his caregiving responsibilities.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

“Yes. She is now teaching in America. She shares a cramped office with another adjunct professor, but she says at least teachers are paid there.”

From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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