postdoctoral
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of postdoctoral
1935–40; post- + doctoral ( def. )
Explanation
Research or other work done after getting a PhD is postdoctoral. Your cousin must be pretty happy about the postdoctoral fellowship she got at the University of Hawaii. Surf's up! When you stay in school long enough to earn a doctorate degree (usually called a PhD or Doctor of Philosophy), you can describe the work, writing, and research you do as doctoral. It follows that related work done after that — but generally before getting a full-time academic job — is postdoctoral, since post- means "after." A postdoctoral student, for example, might work for a few years and teach some classes before pursuing a university teaching position.
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.
After receiving his PhD and completing a postdoctoral program, Armin was in between jobs when he received a research grant in November.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026
Its rolling, five-year premium versus an S&P 500 index fund has been negative since 2016, though, according to Alexander Hübbert, a postdoctoral finance researcher at Stockholm University.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
Other authors include former U-M graduate students Siliang Song and Xukang Shen and former U-M postdoctoral researcher Piaopiao Chen.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2026
Mack Baysinger is a geoscientist and science writer who most recently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark.
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026
So I was not faced with the prospect of absorbing chemistry until I went to Copenhagen to do my postdoctoral research with the biochemist Herman Kalckar.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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.
