instructor

American  

[in-struhk-ter] / ɪnˈstrʌk tər /

noun

• instructors
  plural

1. a person who instructs; teacher.

   Synonyms:

   pedagogue, preceptor, schoolmaster, tutor

2. a teacher in a college or university who ranks below an assistant professor.

---

instructor British  

/ ɪnˈstrʌktə /

noun

1. someone who instructs; teacher

2. a university teacher ranking below assistant professor

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• instructorship
  noun
• instructress
  noun
• self-instructor
  noun
• instructorial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• instructors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of instructor

1425–75; late Middle English < Latin, equivalent to instruc-, variant stem of instruere ( see instruct) + -tor -tor

Compare meaning

How does instructor compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• instructor vs. lecturer

Explanation

An instructor is a teacher. One can be an instructor of just about anything, but it usually applies to teaching hands-on skills, like a water-skiing instructor or the instructor of the knitting class held at the community center. When you instruct, or teach, other people how to do something, you are their instructor. At a college, you might hear some of the people who teach classes referred to as instructors and others as professors. An instructor might teach only part-time, or be a graduate student, or, for the moment at least, not be on the path to receiving the title of professor. Still, instructors are teachers: they have their own classes and students.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

instructor instructors

The second held Latvian and Russian passports and was believed to have acted as logistics coordinator and instructor for the attack.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

"Our findings show that you don't necessarily need multiple complex measurements to identify obesity-related health risks," said Visaria, who also is an instructor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

At another school in California, Barrs said, operators said their classroom was the back end of an open semi-trailer, and their primary instructor was out of the country.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026

"See, you can do it, you're floating," my instructor, Omie Dale, tells me proudly.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

The gym instructor was a short, chunky man in his early thirties who taught in the mornings in a nearby public high school and supplemented his income by teaching in our yeshiva during the afternoons.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

Army instructors say training in traditional skills has broader importance.

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

In their report, the staffers also noted that there have been few well-run studies assessing the safety and efficacy of peptides, which are essentially instructors, telling amino-acid chains how to fix or improve certain cells.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

These include instructors who would normally be spending their days teaching the basics of how to handle firearms, pull over speeding motorists, collect evidence at a crime scene and interview victims and suspects.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

And it reduces the incentive for students and instructors alike to seek inflated grades instead of accurate measures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

Masterji Thakur turned to the panel of Arcanum instructors.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

Related Words

• adviser
• coach
• guide
• lecturer
• mentor
• professor
• teacher
• trainer
• tutor