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

“There are multiple reasons why our fitness or our ability to exercise at a higher level declines,” said Amanda Paluch, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

From Barron's • May 23, 2026

It's a situation akin to removing the "sickest patients" from hospitals and placing them in backstreet clinics, according to Anders Bach-Mortensen, an associate professor of social care at Roskilde University.

From BBC • May 20, 2026

Thalia R. Goldstein, associate professor and director of applied developmental psychology at George Mason University, said storytelling could be a healthy way to introduce kids to painful truths.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

"The findings also suggest that concentrations of methylsiloxane in the atmosphere are much higher than expected," says Rupert Holzinger, associate professor at Utrecht University who co-supervised the study.

From Science Daily • May 13, 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