assistant professor

American  

noun

1. a teacher in a college or university who ranks above an instructor and below an associate professor.

---

assistant professor British  

noun

1. a university teacher lower in rank than an associate professor

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• assistant professorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of assistant professor

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

Based in Brooklyn, Delgado Lopera says he’s just finished teaching for the year as an assistant professor of creative writing and contemporary Latine literature at the City University of New York.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026

“A 5% bump, especially in the retail industry where margins are thin, is a big deal,” says Dmitry Mitrofanov, an assistant professor at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and one of the paper’s authors.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026

"Co-hosting these global sporting events is not necessarily a recipe for a lovey-dovey relationship between the co-hosts," says Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, an author and clinical assistant professor of global sport at New York University.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026

Many growing cities can look at Austin and find a solution that suits them, says Jeanna Kenney, an assistant professor of economics and real estate at the Villanova School of Business in Pennsylvania.

From Barron's • May 31, 2026

Most schools promised terms appropriate for any new assistant professor of English.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez