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

This level of specialisation in manufacturing was unseen elsewhere in the world at the time, says University of Bath associate professor Fei Qin, who studied factories across eastern China in the 2000s.

From BBC • Apr. 26, 2026

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

The research team also included Matthew J. Baker, associate professor of linguistics at Brigham Young University, and Jordan Smith, assistant professor of English at the University of Northern Colorado.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2026

Panofsky, who had risen precociously in his two years at Berkeley to the rank of associate professor, detested the very idea of the oath, but signed— “reluctantly,” as he put it later.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik