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

Columbia University associate professor Dieter Egli says his group has precisely edited genes in an embryo, a landmark scientific move that is highly controversial.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 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 new study, led by senior author Mandar Deepak Muzumdar, MD, associate professor of genetics and of internal medicine at YSM, sought to answer that question.

From Science Daily • Jun. 2, 2026

Panofsky, who had risen precociously in his two years at Berkeley to the rank of associate professor, detested the very idea of the oath, but signed— “reluctantly,” as he put it later.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik