postdoctoral

American  

[pohst-dok-ter-uhl] / poʊstˈdɒk tər əl /

adjective

1. of or relating to study or professional work undertaken after the receipt of a doctorate.

   postdoctoral courses.

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postdoctoral British  

/ pəʊstˈdɒktərəl /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or designating studies, research, or professional work above the level of a doctorate

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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

See Examples For:

postdoctoral

A preliminary study launched in 2022 was led by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Ysabel Huaccallo-Aguilar.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026

Marcus did his first postdoctoral research in Ottawa, but in 1949 he jumped at the chance to study theory — instead of hands-on, experimental chemistry — at the University of North Carolina.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

A month later, it said it confirmed misconduct, fired a postdoctoral researcher and ousted the dean of the university’s Institute of Translational Medicine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Stan Kerstjens, a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Anthony Zador's laboratory, explains the challenge in terms of positional information.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

Margaret called each member of the Gey lab’s staff, including a postdoctoral student who’d just flown in on a red-eye from Europe.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot