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

• associate professorship noun

Etymology

Origin of associate professor

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Susan Enguidanos, an associate professor of gerontology at USC, researches and teaches end-of-life care.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2026

“Wars are fought in two spaces,” said Narges Bajoghli, associate professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University, in a recent Quincy Institute briefing.

From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026

"We show the potential for reversing age-related vision loss," says Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

From Science Daily • Apr. 22, 2026

“We’re integrated in the global economy like everyone else is,” said Brett Watson, associate professor of applied and natural resource economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026

The second was Yale’s complacent refusal to accommodate its sought-after assistant professor’s request for a promotion to associate professor.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik