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
How does instructor compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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:
Marine Corps helicopter pilot and a helicopter accident investigation instructor at USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
After his departure from the Dodgers, Claire worked as a columnist and analyst for MLB.com, a radio show host, an instructor at USC and a consultant to companies involved with sports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Shin balances her safe-haven portfolio with extra cash flow from her side job as a fitness instructor.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
One instructor said she and her colleagues were told their pay would be delayed on the day it was due on 14 August.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
She was only seventeen when she became an instructor.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
But studies show AI text detectors are often unreliable, generating false positives that can erode trust between instructors and students and forcing teachers to devise innovative methods to detect cheating and evaluate assignments.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Across the Northeast and New England camp corridor, summer camps have hired mahjong instructors to lead multiday clinics and are incorporating play into daily schedules.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
"I was diving in the Clyde and one of the instructors had to pull me out of the way of the tentacles as it was wafting above me," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 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
Mariya Akilina, from the 46th Guards, flew in the medical services and as a crop duster in civil aviation for twenty years after the war; Nadya Popova and Klava Fomicheva worked as flight instructors.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Definitions 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.
