internship

American  

[in-turn-ship] / ˈɪn tɜrnˌʃɪp /

noun

• internships
  plural

1. the state or condition of being an intern.

2. the period during which a person serves as an intern.

3. any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession.

   an internship for management trainees.

4. a position as a participant in such a program.

   She has accepted an internship in a law firm.

5. any period of time during which a beginner acquires experience in an occupation, profession, or pursuit.

   She had a long internship before starting her own recording studio.

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internship British  

/ ˈɪntɜːnʃɪp /

noun

1. the position of being an intern or the period during which a person is an intern

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• internships
  plural

Etymology

Origin of internship

First recorded in 1900–05; intern ¹ + -ship

Explanation

An internship is a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment, and it can be paid or unpaid. If you want to go into publishing, you might have to take an internship before you are qualified for an actual job. To intern means "to pass inside something," and when you have an internship, it's like you've temporarily gotten permission to be inside a workplace. If you're just completing your medical training, then the next stage is to get a medical internship, in which you are supervised by more experienced doctors. Sometimes your internship is part of your "residency," your first hospital job.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

internship internships

Angie Nixon’s political career started with an internship for a member of city council.

From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2026

She had to take on a three-month unpaid internship in a classroom and several thousand dollars in fees for her certification.

From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026

That’s three to four years of coursework and clinical practice, followed by a mandatory one-year full-time internship.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

He wants to study propulsion engineering and hopes to land an internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

I have nothing against tutors, but that was Camille’s back-up plan before she got the internship.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

I want to dramatically expand paid internships, apprenticeships and partnerships with employers and organized labor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Phan said it blocks students from paid internships, research and teaching assistant jobs and student government posts that include stipends — positions she called “vital to advancing their future careers.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

Epstein also placed Molchanova in internships arranged by his friends, including a stretch she describes interning for the publicist Peggy Siegal in 2016.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

That is a significant narrowing of past practice, when international students were allowed to complete summer or other internships on their student visas using a program called curricular practical training.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

By fall, we had a cohort of twenty-seven Allies working all over Chicago, holding internships everywhere from city hall to a South Side community assistance agency to Latino Youth, an alternative high school in Pilsen.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama