instructor
Americannoun
-
instructors
plural
-
a person who instructs; teacher.
- Synonyms:
- pedagogue, preceptor, schoolmaster, tutor
-
a teacher in a college or university who ranks below an assistant professor.
noun
-
someone who instructs; teacher
-
a university teacher ranking below assistant professor
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of instructor
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin, equivalent to instruc-, variant stem of instruere ( see instruct) + -tor -tor
Compare meaning
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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.
Vocabulary lists containing instructor
Occupations
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List 2
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -er, -or
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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.
See Examples For:
The airman, identified, external by the military as Sgt Ian Patterson, a Tactical Air Control Party instructor at Joint Base San Antonio, died in hospital.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
An 80-year-old man who died in a light aircraft crash is understood to be flying instructor Ian Haggis.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
A former tennis instructor, he treats the sport like a detective treats a case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Scott Christensen, lead endurance instructor for USA Track & Field, says while he appreciates the potential performance-enhancing qualities of bouncy foam and carbon springboards, “everything has a cost-benefit ratio to it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
“People are naïve about such things,” Marco says, a phrase oft repeated by his instructor as both admonishment and warning.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Faculty members at a number of institutions told MarketWatch that their computer-science departments scrambled to hire faculty when interest in the major peaked around 2023, and now the departments have a surplus of instructors.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
Over four years, those responsibilities would give instructors repeated opportunities to teach, observe, correct and assess the habits of a future officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
And then it was concert time, with Densmore on drums and instructors Calderon on guitar, Flores on percussion and Mackenzie Azela on bass.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
It is not clear how many instructors and customers have been hit by the sudden decision to shut the studios down.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Ella spotted her godmother, Sera Baptiste, among the instructors, and they nodded at each other.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
