assistant
Americannoun
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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
- nonassistant noun
- unassistant adjective
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”; assist
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.
Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said Southern California was rife with hospice fraud.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2026
Mara Karlin, who served as assistant secretary of defense for strategy during the Biden administration, said the priority then was beefing up the military presence in the Pacific.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Mastick and co-author Rachel Welicky, an assistant professor at Neumann University in Pennsylvania, tested different techniques to analyze the samples.
From Science Daily • Apr. 1, 2026
Most of those cases had been opened by Grady O’Malley, an assistant U.S. attorney who oversaw several prosecutions of union corruption while working in the New Jersey office over four decades.
From Salon • Apr. 1, 2026
On the other hand, the superintendent and the assistant were town men.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
