associate professor

American  

noun

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

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associate professor British  

noun

1. (in the US and Canada) a university teacher lower in rank than a full professor but higher than an assistant professor

2. (in New Zealand) a senior lecturer holding the rank below professor

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Other Word Forms

• associate professorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of associate professor

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

associate professor

Castañeda’s daughter, Christine Valenciana, associate professor emeritus of elementary and bilingual education at Cal State Fullerton, said her mother was forced to leave Los Angeles by train when she was 9 years old.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

“Passionate sports fans are not as price sensitive,” said Arianna Uhalde, an associate professor of clinical marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

“As perverse as it sounds, a desperate employee isn’t bad for the employer,” says Eric M. VanEpps, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and another one of the researchers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Seema Patel, an associate professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, also stays up late at night to try to finish her work so she doesn't have to miss moments with her children.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

The second was Yale’s complacent refusal to accommodate its sought-after assistant professor’s request for a promotion to associate professor.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik