adjunct

American  

[aj-uhngkt] / ˈædʒ ʌŋkt /

noun

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.

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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

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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

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

The new union would cover more than 2,700 full-time, part-time and adjunct faculty across hundreds of disciplines in 22 schools and the USC libraries.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026

In the suburbs of New York City, “inventory is just about as tight as it’s ever been,” says Jonathan Miller, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

From Barron's • May 31, 2026

The problem: “Like Crazy Eddie, for those that remember him, the fees are ‘insane,’” says institutional investor Michael Weinberg, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

From Barron's • May 21, 2026

The son of a judge, DeJute teaches as an adjunct law professor at Pepperdine University, where he and others provide free legal services to victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Barack had moved from an adjunct position to a senior lecturer at the law school, which gave us a tuition break at the university’s Lab School, where Malia was soon to start preschool.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama