professor

American  

[pruh-fes-er] / prəˈfɛs ər /

noun

professors plural

1. a teacher of the highest academic rank in a college or university, who has been awarded the title Professor in a particular branch of learning; a full professor.

   a professor of Spanish literature.

2. any teacher who has the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor.

3. a teacher.

4. an instructor in some art or skilled sport.

   a professor of singing; a professor of boxing.

5. a person who professes or declares particular sentiments, beliefs, etc.

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professor British  

/ prəˈfɛsə, ˌprɒfɪˈsɔːrɪəl /

noun

1. the principal lecturer or teacher in a field of learning at a university or college; a holder of a university chair

2. any teacher in a university or college See also associate professor assistant professor full professor

3. a person who claims skill and instructs others in some sport, occupation, etc

4. a person who professes his opinions, beliefs, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• professorialism
  noun
• subprofessor
  noun
• nonprofessorial
  adjective
• professorial
  adjective
• pseudoprofessorial
  adjective
• unprofessorial
  adjective
• nonprofessorially
  adverb
• professorially
  adverb
• unprofessorially
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• professors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of professor

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English from Medieval Latin prōfessor “one who has taken the vows of a religious order,” Latin: “a public lecturer,” equivalent to prō- pro- ¹ + -fet-, combining form of fatērī “to acknowledge, declare” + -tor -tor, with tt becoming ss

Explanation

A professor is someone who teaches at a college or university. Professor is officially a teacher of the highest rank, above adjuncts and lecturers, but college students can call them all professor. The Latin origin of the word means “declare publicly,” and professors are responsible for publicly sharing their knowledge with the world, or at least with whoever can afford to pay them for lessons. Although anyone teaching college can be called a professor, it’s really a title that has to be earned by going to graduate school and moving up by being an assistant professor, then associate professor, and finally a full professor.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

professor professors

Dr Pascal Vrticka, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Essex, has spent nearly two decades studying attachment.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

That’s according to a new study led by Sue Shapses, a professor at Rutgers University and Rutgers-RWJ Medical Center.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

The episode draws on Amicus’ interview with Cherneff, a lawyer and visiting assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Elliott Hazen, an adjunct professor in the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says that hasn't happened in a decade.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

Kontos enlisted the aid of Antonius Oikonomou, a professor of archaeology at the University of Athens.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

ETH geophysics professors Paul Tackley and Taras Gerya, together with their collaborators, are contributing to ESA's EnVision mission.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026

The most influential research was from Jagadeesh and Titman, two finance professors at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, in1993, but earlier papers date back at least to the 1960s.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Right now, the legal marketplace of ideas is more or less the exclusive domain of judges, with occasional input from law professors who wish they were judges.

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026

Jeremy Stein and Karen Dynan, both Harvard professors, have written more favorably about the Fed’s large-balance-sheet policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

In April 1933, Jewish professors were abruptly evicted from their positions in state-funded universities.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• assistant
• educator
• faculty member
• fellow
• instructor
• lecturer
• principal
• teacher
• tutor