adjunct

American  

[aj-uhngkt] / ˈædʒ ʌŋkt /

noun

adjuncts plural

1. something added to another thing but not essential to it.

   Synonyms:

   supplement, appendix

2. a person associated with lesser status, rank, authority, etc., in some duty or service; assistant.

   Synonyms:

   attaché, aide

3. a person working at an institution, as a college or university, without having full or permanent status.

   My lawyer works two nights a week as an adjunct, teaching business law at the college.

4. Grammar. a modifying form, word, or phrase depending on some other form, word, or phrase, especially an element of clause structure with adverbial function.

---

adjective

1. joined or associated, especially in an auxiliary or subordinate relationship.

2. attached or belonging without full or permanent status.

   an adjunct surgeon on the hospital staff.

adjunct British  

/ ˈædʒʌŋkt, əˈdʒʌŋktɪv /

noun

1. something incidental or not essential that is added to something else

2. a person who is subordinate to another

3. grammar

   1. part of a sentence other than the subject or the predicate

   2. (in systemic grammar) part of a sentence other than the subject, predicator, object, or complement; usually a prepositional or adverbial group

   3. part of a sentence that may be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical; a modifier

4. logic another name for accident

---

adjective

1. added or connected in a secondary or subordinate position; auxiliary

Synonym Usage

See addition.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• adjunctive
  adjective
• adjunctly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• adjuncts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of adjunct

1580–90; < Latin adjunctus joined to (past participle of adjungere ), equivalent to ad- ad- + jung- (nasal variant of jug- yoke ¹ ) + -tus past participle suffix

Explanation

Adjunct means something added on, but not part of the whole. An adjunct professor is someone who is hired by a college to teach but isn't a full member of the faculty. This is a word you can figure out by taking it apart. From ad- "to" and -junct "join" (think "junction"), you can see that this is about joining something to another. "During lunch, Tim always sat at the girls' lacrosse-team lunch table, and they joked that he was an adjunct member of the team."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adjunct adjuncts

“The chance of the region and Hormuz going back to the old normal is effectively zero,” said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Still, he had to give up his job as an adjunct professor to make time for his caregiving responsibilities.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Another, in 1991-92, brought 133% of the average, according to data provided by Jan Null, adjunct professor at San José State University.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026

Cook, who also serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, said the findings challenge common assumptions about aging and cognition.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 13, 2026

Whereas color is an adjunct element to graphics and sometimes sculpture, it is indispensable to virtually all forms of painting.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

"Healthy dietary and lifestyle practices should remain the foundation for obesity treatment and management, with medications such as GLP-1 receptor agonists used as adjuncts."

From Science Daily ● Jan. 28, 2026

Administrators rely too heavily on student reviews when deciding whether to retain adjuncts, assistant professors and even associates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025

Hiring adjuncts with industry experience could advise students how to find entry-level work in their future career.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2024

Rather than seeing records as marketing adjuncts to concert tours, he showed that recordings could be the principal point of contact — in his case, the only point — between musicians and their fans.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2024

I rang for the tea, and the waiter, reappearing with his magic clue, brought in by degrees some fifty adjuncts to that refreshment, but of tea not a glimpse.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens