associate professor

American  

noun

1. a teacher in a college or university who ranks above an assistant professor and below a professor.

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associate professor British  

noun

1. (in the US and Canada) a university teacher lower in rank than a full professor but higher than an assistant professor

2. (in New Zealand) a senior lecturer holding the rank below professor

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Other Word Forms

• associate professorship noun

Etymology

Origin of associate professor

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

He co-led the study with Vinod K. Sangwan, a research associate professor at McCormick.

From Science Daily • Apr. 18, 2026

"If they think it's gone well, it's because nothing has gone wrong," says Giselle Bastin, an associate professor at Flinders University with a research interest in Australia's relationship with the monarchy.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026

The authors—Mr. Dutkiewicz is an assistant professor at the Pratt Institute, Mr. Rosenberg is an associate professor at Duke University—harbor few illusions about the past.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

“I think the developers need to find much more budget-friendly models,” said Julie Brown, an Ohio University associate professor of gerontology who teaches courses on the business of aging.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

Panofsky, who had risen precociously in his two years at Berkeley to the rank of associate professor, detested the very idea of the oath, but signed— “reluctantly,” as he put it later.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik