assistant
Americannoun
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assistants
plural
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a person who assists or gives aid and support; helper.
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a person who is subordinate to another in rank, function, etc.; one holding a secondary rank in an office or post.
He was assistant to the office manager.
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something that aids and supplements another.
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a faculty member of a college or university who ranks below an instructor and whose responsibilities usually include grading papers, supervising laboratories, and assisting in teaching.
adjective
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assisting; helpful.
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serving in an immediately subordinate position; of secondary rank.
an assistant coach.
noun
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a person who assists, esp in a subordinate position
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( as modifier )
assistant manager
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See shop assistant
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of assistant
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English assistent, from Latin assistent-, stem of assistēns “standing by,” present participle of assistere “to stand by, help”; see assist
Explanation
An assistant is someone that is there to help. If you work 80 hours a week, you might want to think about hiring a personal assistant to pick up your dry cleaning. The word assistant typically refers to someone who offers assistance. However, in certain professional situations, assistant can mean on a level below, as in "the Assistant District Attorney reports to the District Attorney." Not surprisingly, an assistant provides assistance. However, unlike a slave or an indentured servant, an assistant is paid for his work.
Vocabulary lists containing assistant
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ant, -ent
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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:
Redick praised how Doncic planned a team minicamp in Slovenia where players and some assistant coaches participated in basketball practices while enjoying team-bonding activities such as golfing, rowing and sightseeing in Doncic’s hometown of Ljubljana.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Whenever her husband stepped out, an assistant carried a parasol overhead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Joshua Ferrer, an assistant professor of government at American University, said many legal residents charged with improperly voting don’t realize they weren’t supposed to do so.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Twm Jones, assistant manager of On the River, a venue opposite the Principality Stadium, says they are "really excited" for the event.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
A door squeaked open, and the vet’s assistant poked her head out.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
“These assistants get better and better as we, the consumers, learn how to best interact with them and direct our agents.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Meta’s Muse attempts to let average users manage their own digital assistants through simple prompts and an easy-to-navigate interface.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Caleb Pepperday is a financial planner who works with clients who are largely between 30 and 50 years old and are physician assistants.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
The technology is also behind voice-controlled virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, and is being used to develop systems for self-driving cars.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
“The lab assistants live on this stuff when they run experiments at night,” he says.
From "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm
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.
