staff

¹ American  

[staf, stahf] / stæf, stɑf /

noun

• staffs,
  plural,  plural
• staves
  plural

1. a group of persons, as employees, charged with carrying out the work of an establishment or executing some undertaking.

2. a group of assistants to a manager, superintendent, or executive.

3. a member of a staff.

4. Military.

   1. a body of officers without command authority, appointed to assist a commanding officer.

   2. the parts of any army concerned with administrative matters, planning, etc., rather than with actual participation in combat.

5. those members of an organization serving only in an auxiliary or advisory capacity on a given project.

6. a stick, pole, or rod for aid in walking or climbing, for use as a weapon, etc.

7. a rod or wand serving as a symbol of office or authority, as a crozier, baton, truncheon, or mace.

8. a pole on which a flag is hung or displayed.

9. something that supports or sustains.

10. Music. Also a set of horizontal lines, now five in number, with the corresponding four spaces between them, on which music is written.

11. Archaic. the shaft of a spear, lance, etc.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a military or organizational staff.

   a staff officer; staff meetings.

2. (of a professional person) employed on the staff of a corporation, publication, institution, or the like rather than being self-employed or practicing privately.

   a staff writer; staff physicians at the hospital.

verb (used with object)

• staffs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• staffed,
  past participle,  past
• staffing
  present participle

1. to provide with a staff of assistants or workers.

   She staffed her office with excellent secretaries.

2. to serve on the staff of.

3. to send to a staff for study or further work (often followed byout ).

   The White House will staff out the recommendations before making a decision.

verb (used without object)

• staffs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• staffed,
  past participle,  past
• staffing
  present participle

1. to hire employees, as for a new office or project (sometimes followed byup ).

   Next month we'll begin staffing up for the reelection campaign.

staff ² American  

[staf, stahf] / stæf, stɑf /

noun

1. a composition of plaster and fibrous material used for a temporary finish and in ornamental work, as on exposition buildings.

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staff ¹ British  

/ stɑːf /

noun

1. a group of people employed by a company, individual, etc, for executive, clerical, sales work, etc

2. (modifier) attached to or provided for the staff of an establishment

   a staff doctor

3. the body of teachers or lecturers of an educational institution, as distinct from the students

4. the officers appointed to assist a commander, service, or central headquarters organization in establishing policy, plans, etc

5. a stick with some special use, such as a walking stick or an emblem of authority

6. something that sustains or supports

   bread is the staff of life

7. a pole on which a flag is hung

8. Usual US name: rod.  a graduated rod used in surveying, esp for sighting to with a levelling instrument

9. Also called: stave.  music

   1. the system of horizontal lines grouped into sets of five (four in the case of plainsong) upon which music is written. The spaces between them are also used, being employed in conjunction with a clef in order to give a graphic indication of pitch

   2. any set of five lines in this system together with its clef

      the treble staff

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verb

1. (tr) to provide with a staff

staff ² British  

/ stɑːf /

noun

1. a mixture of plaster and hair used to cover the external surface of temporary structures and for decoration

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Grammar

See collective noun.

Usage

Plural word for staff The plural form of staff is staffs. For some meanings of the word staff, staves, pronounced [ steyvz ] is also an acceptable plural form. However, it is easier to use the plural form staffs, which is valid for all meanings of the word staff. The plural of several other words that end in -f are also formed this way, including playoff/playoffs, cliff/cliffs, and roof/roofs. In some instances, words that end in -f are made plural by changing the ending to -ves, as in half/halves or leaf/leaves, which derives directly from their original pluralization in Old English. This is the plural form we see in staff/staves.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• staffless
  adjective
• unstaffed
  adjective
• well-staffed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• staffs
  plural
• staves
  plural

Participles

• staffing
  present
• staffed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• staff
  simple
• staffs
  simple
• have staffed
  perfect
• has staffed
  perfect
• am staffing
  progressive
• are staffing
  progressive
• is staffing
  progressive
• have been staffing
  perfect progressive
• has been staffing
  perfect progressive

Past

• staffed
  simple
• had staffed
  perfect
• was staffing
  progressive
• were staffing
  progressive
• had been staffing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will staff
  simple
• will have staffed
  perfect
• will be staffing
  progressive
• will have been staffing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of staff¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun staf(fe), stafte, Old English stæf, stæb; cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Old Norse stafr staff, Sanskrit root stabh- “support”

Origin of staff²

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; of obscure origin; perhaps from German Stoff stuff

Explanation

Staff means everyone who works at a particular place. You might suspect that the town library's not a very fun place to work if its staff is always incredibly cranky every time you visit. Staff refers to all of the employees at a business, or especially a school, where the teachers as a group are called "the staff." A completely different meaning of staff is a long wooden stick or rod, particularly one that has a specific purpose — like a walking stick or a weapon. This is the original meaning of staff, from the Old English stæf. It wasn't until the nineteenth century that the word staff was used to mean "group of employees."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

staff staffs staves staffed staffing

Norma Buster is the chief of staff at C.A.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

But given that it does not even have a proper promotional poster, cinema staff have resorted to drawing their own posters to entice audiences to watch.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

Left behind on the decoy plane were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and other administration officials and aides.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

But for the most part, the staff at the hotel tried to do their jobs with stoic professionalism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The White House staff also included some free blacks, among them a young woman who worked as a pastry chef.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

The position was created by statute in the 1800s; the marshal serves as the chief of police for the court, attends each court session, and handles ministerial duties, like paying the justices and their staffs.

From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026

But small businesses, which had cut roles on net in November, grew their staffs last month, putting private-sector jobs in positive territory overall, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

These funds-of-funds typically employ large staffs to rigorously analyze the track record of other hedge funds in hopes of identifying those with the greatest probability of producing impressive future returns.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025

And long before that, Carroll and Kiffin’s father, renowned defensive coach Monte Kiffin, worked together on several coaching staffs at the college and NFL levels.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025

I shuttled between meetings with various department heads, worked with the staffs of city commissioners, and was dispatched sometimes to different neighborhoods around Chicago to follow up on personal complaints received by the mayor.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

For many Americans taking a weight-loss drug, Thanksgiving presents a conundrum: Take the weekly dose that staves off hunger, or push it off so they can feast?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025

"In our model, the barrel staves spread out in steps," he says, "each step representing a new limiting factor that becomes active as the cell grows faster."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025

France's Emmanuel Macron was on Friday due to pick a head of government tasked with pulling the country out of a political gridlock, in a move that staves off fresh elections for now.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025

It means not all the cuts will go ahead and it staves off effective bankruptcy, but it also saddles Havering with high debt repayments for the next 20 years.

From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2024

There the yew bows were made and repaired; staves for lances and pikestaffs were cut.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

They are usually staffed by lifelong public servants who, in an ideal world, are focused solely on making sure government officials properly use their taxpayer-funded budgets and legal authority.

From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026

“The positive part of AI is that it’s pushing a lot of people to call our helpline directly”—one staffed by licensed human therapists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

Ultimately, many youth workers say, the benefit of youth clubs is that they are usually staffed by people with deep roots in their communities - in contrast to solutions imposed externally.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

The Olympics will also be staffed by thousands of officers from agencies from across the state.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

She said she plans to reach out to staffing agencies and use platforms like Indeed to recruit new workers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

Once elevated to his new posts, Salisbury took charge of carrying out the second Trump administration’s agenda for HSI, personally issuing staffing directives, reassignments and promotions, current and former agency officials told ProPublica.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

Driscoll, the chair of international staffing firm Magnit Global, supports a proposal that would require high earners to pay more into the system.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

The zoo is seeing challenges to its national accreditation after federal regulators spotted rust and and peeling paint in some of its exhibits, and pointed out “critical” funding and staffing shortages.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

“I remember seeing Harry Glicken curled up in a dark corner at the Vancouver headquarters,” said Brugman who was still staffing the phones late that day.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Related Words

• cadre
• crew
• faculty
• force
• organization
• personnel
• team
• work force