apprentice
Americannoun
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apprentices
plural
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a person who works for another in order to learn a trade.
an apprentice to a plumber.
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History/Historical. a person legally bound through indenture to a master craftsman in order to learn a trade.
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a learner; novice; tyro.
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U.S. Navy. an enlisted person receiving specialized training.
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a jockey with less than one year's experience who has won fewer than 40 races.
verb (used with object)
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apprentices,
present (3rd person singular)
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apprenticed,
past participle, past
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apprenticing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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apprentices,
present (3rd person singular)
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apprenticed,
past participle, past
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apprenticing
present participle
noun
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someone who works for a skilled or qualified person in order to learn a trade or profession, esp for a recognized period
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any beginner or novice
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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apprenticesimple
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apprenticessimple
-
have apprenticedperfect
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has apprenticedperfect
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am apprenticingprogressive
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are apprenticingprogressive
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is apprenticingprogressive
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have been apprenticingperfect progressive
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has been apprenticingperfect progressive
Past
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apprenticedsimple
-
had apprenticedperfect
-
was apprenticingprogressive
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were apprenticingprogressive
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had been apprenticingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of apprentice
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English ap(p)rentis, from Anglo-French, Old French ap(p)rentiz, from unattested Vulgar Latin apprenditīcius, equivalent to unattested apprendit(us) (for Latin apprehēnsus; see apprehensible) + Latin -īcius suffix forming adjectives from past participles, here nominalized
Explanation
An apprentice is someone who learns a trade. An apprentice farmer is paid very little but has the chance to learn farming by watching and doing. In the old days, becoming an apprentice was the only way to get into many lines of work. Nowadays we think of it more in terms of trades — butchers, bakers, bricklayers, etc. If you do the same thing in an office setting, it's usually called an internship, but the idea is the same — learning by watching an expert. The word can be used as either a noun or verb: You are an apprentice, but you also can apprentice to the barber down the street.
Vocabulary lists containing apprentice
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She turned it down and went to work as an apprentice at a law firm instead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
The MP said the apprenticeship wage credit would result in businesses saving an average of £4,000-a-year per apprentice.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
If you are under 19, or if you are 19 or older but in the first year of your apprenticeship, you will be paid at least the apprentice rate, external of £8 per hour.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
The 19-year-old college student compares herself to an apprentice learning from a master artisan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
I want to prove to Ma that I would make a good apprentice.
From "Dragons in a Bag" by Zetta Elliott
At the event at the Ironworkers Training Center in La Palma organized by labor leaders to oppose the wealth tax, apprentices attended workshops about rigging and collective bargaining rights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
For 18 to 20 year olds the rate is £10.85, and for under 18s and apprentices it is £8.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
He said that apprentices are also beneficial to employers, since their salaries are low and they tend to be better learners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
At accounting firm Grant Thornton, just 10% of U.K. trainee intakes were apprentices in 2010.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
"I know two printing apprentices in Kiel. They can be trusted to print pamphlets—hundreds of pamphlets—after hours."
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
"After his studies in London, he was apprenticed to other stonemasons to help in the construction of the Houses of Parliament," Simmons said.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
John Van Nostrand Dorr was born in 1872, long before the Model T. He grew up in New Jersey, where he apprenticed under Thomas Edison.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
Samuel Slater, born in 1768 into a farming family in Derbyshire, England, was apprenticed at age 14 to the owner of a cotton mill that was using the novel Arkwright water frame.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
After Brooks apprenticed as a teen entertaining in the Catskills and served in World War II, Sid Caesar hired the young comedian on his own dime to write for “Your Show of Shows.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
For seven months Dorothy Vaughan had apprenticed as a mathematician, growing more confident with the concepts, the numbers, and the people at Langley.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Roth made his way to Bloomington, Ill., apprenticing himself to an architect, later returning to Chicago, where he found work on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
His uncles started a group called Banda La Movida, and Vallejo is still teaching himself acoustic guitar when he’s not apprenticing as a hat maker at Márquez Clásico, crafting tejanas and sombreros de charro.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
Some say she has been apprenticing as a cobbler in the Italian countryside; others, that she’s formed an ice cave—and won the trust of indigenous penguin tribes—in Antarctica.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
By the next year, she was studying at Tokyo University of the Arts and apprenticing at Handa Kyuseido, a relative newcomer in the multigenerational-family conservator field.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
He became a woodworker, apprenticing at a nearby shop owned by a broad-minded Unitarian.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
