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

“Noel Tata has been in some sense pushing for change, asserting himself,” said Kavil Ramachandran, a professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

An academic who accused the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism has been suspended from his post at a Belgian university.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Frank Bowman, law professor and former federal and state prosecutor, writes in Slate about how lawmakers should approach this mighty task.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

Work in Gribble's lab by postdoctoral scientist Alyssa Liguori, who is now an assistant professor at SUNY-New Paltz, examined two different genotypes from the same rotifer species.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

The UN Refugee Agency had sent out a bulletin about Mariam, and Habib’s professor and his sons were looking for any news of her in Jalalabad.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

Only one per cent of professors in UK universities are black, making each appointment hugely significant.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Of course, the real Bourdain did not propose such a ludicrous project, which the movie professors pass on after he’d already boasted to his family and friends that he’d gotten the fellowship.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

New graduates lament that while their college professors discouraged the use of AI tools, hiring managers applaud it.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026

At the time of his appointment there were only 150 Black professors in the U.K. out of a total of around 23,000.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

But, united by excitement, the professors were not so easily intimidated.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

Related Words

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