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

Derived Forms

• associate professorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of associate professor

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Thick hair, tattoos, darker pigmentation or aggressive movement can trip up sensors, says John Schuna, associate professor of kinesiology at Oregon State University.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026

Ellen Meade, an associate professor of economics at Duke University, said she thinks Warsh will want to demonstrate at his first press conference that there is a “new world” at the Fed.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 6, 2026

“Everybody assumes money is the most important thing, that you can quote-unquote ‘buy an election’ with all that money,” said Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026

"The idea is, can we use food-based interventions to modulate inflammation?" said lead author Jessica Cooperstone, associate professor of horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University.

From Science Daily • May 30, 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