assistant
Americannoun
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a person who assists or gives aid and support; helper.
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a person who is subordinate to another in rank, function, etc.; one holding a secondary rank in an office or post.
He was assistant to the office manager.
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something that aids and supplements another.
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a faculty member of a college or university who ranks below an instructor and whose responsibilities usually include grading papers, supervising laboratories, and assisting in teaching.
adjective
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assisting; helpful.
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serving in an immediately subordinate position; of secondary rank.
an assistant coach.
noun
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a person who assists, esp in a subordinate position
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( as modifier )
assistant manager
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See shop assistant
adjective
Other Word Forms
- nonassistant noun
- unassistant adjective
Etymology
Origin of assistant
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English assistent, from Latin assistent-, stem of assistēns “standing by,” present participle of assistere “to stand by, help”; assist
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mara Karlin, who served as assistant secretary of defense for strategy during the Biden administration, said the priority then was beefing up the military presence in the Pacific.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Mastick and co-author Rachel Welicky, an assistant professor at Neumann University in Pennsylvania, tested different techniques to analyze the samples.
From Science Daily • Apr. 1, 2026
Most of those cases had been opened by Grady O’Malley, an assistant U.S. attorney who oversaw several prosecutions of union corruption while working in the New Jersey office over four decades.
From Salon • Apr. 1, 2026
"When I make it to a cafe table, even for a few minutes, I can almost believe the world hasn't ended," said Fatemeh, a 27-year-old dental assistant.
From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026
Friendly faces came into view, some familiar—Gran; my favorite teacher, Miss Kirker; the vet assistant with a tower of pumpkin-orange curls—along with gobs of strangers gathered in the parking lot.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
