apprentice
Americannoun
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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)
verb (used without object)
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
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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
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had apprenticedperfect
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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:
"I remember going home after training, having been an apprentice, and telling my friends how close I had been to Kevin Keegan," Fairclough told BBC Radio Merseyside.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The term “masterpiece” originally referred to the work produced by an apprentice to prove that he was entitled to become a master.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Christine is only slightly more experienced, no longer an atelier apprentice, but is just beginning to prove herself, constructing her first garment entirely on her own.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
"Does it really sound like the president of the United States to run a televised program for who would be his next apprentice?"
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
He had been born and raised in Macondo and he was an apprentice mechanic in the banana company garage.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
HSA's Pitchforth argues that the organisation's apprentices come out highly skilled - perhaps more so than those from other programmes.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
His scammers are hustlers and apprentices with lots of free time on their hands, freelancing in an informal economy of deception held together by cellphones and copied scripts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
Overall, Bloomberg said its latest spending will support these sorts of efforts in half a dozen states, including classroom renovations and paid work stipends for student apprentices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
At that moment, Sir Keir was on the way to meet apprentices in south west London.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
It was true; his father had just hired two apprentices and contracted work out to smaller smiths.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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
He apprenticed himself to the great artists, ancient and modern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
As a teenager in Rutland, Vt., he apprenticed himself to a photographer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Though they were apprenticed by their father to perform as adolescents, they were their own men, with a sophisticated grasp of various musical genres as teenagers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025
With an inheritance of £100 he was sent to London to be apprenticed to the artist Sir Peter Lely.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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
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
For the sound bath at First Congregational Church, which cost between $55 and $66 depending on whether you brought your own mat and pillow, Bawa brought together six sound healers — some experienced, some apprenticing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2023
Mahmoud wanted Mohammed, and all of his sons, working on dry land, so Mohammed spent his early teenage years as a craftsman, laying brick and apprenticing for an ironsmith.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
