staff
1 Americannoun
-
a group of persons, as employees, charged with carrying out the work of an establishment or executing some undertaking.
-
a group of assistants to a manager, superintendent, or executive.
-
a member of a staff.
-
Military.
-
a body of officers without command authority, appointed to assist a commanding officer.
-
the parts of any army concerned with administrative matters, planning, etc., rather than with actual participation in combat.
-
-
those members of an organization serving only in an auxiliary or advisory capacity on a given project.
-
a stick, pole, or rod for aid in walking or climbing, for use as a weapon, etc.
-
a rod or wand serving as a symbol of office or authority, as a crozier, baton, truncheon, or mace.
-
a pole on which a flag is hung or displayed.
-
something that supports or sustains.
-
Music. Also a set of horizontal lines, now five in number, with the corresponding four spaces between them, on which music is written.
-
Archaic. the shaft of a spear, lance, etc.
adjective
-
of or relating to a military or organizational staff.
a staff officer; staff meetings.
-
(of a professional person) employed on the staff of a corporation, publication, institution, or the like rather than being self-employed or practicing privately.
a staff writer; staff physicians at the hospital.
verb (used with object)
-
to provide with a staff of assistants or workers.
She staffed her office with excellent secretaries.
-
to serve on the staff of.
-
to send to a staff for study or further work (often followed byout ).
The White House will staff out the recommendations before making a decision.
verb (used without object)
noun
noun
-
a group of people employed by a company, individual, etc, for executive, clerical, sales work, etc
-
(modifier) attached to or provided for the staff of an establishment
a staff doctor
-
the body of teachers or lecturers of an educational institution, as distinct from the students
-
the officers appointed to assist a commander, service, or central headquarters organization in establishing policy, plans, etc
-
a stick with some special use, such as a walking stick or an emblem of authority
-
something that sustains or supports
bread is the staff of life
-
a pole on which a flag is hung
-
Usual US name: rod. a graduated rod used in surveying, esp for sighting to with a levelling instrument
-
Also called: stave. music
-
the system of horizontal lines grouped into sets of five (four in the case of plainsong) upon which music is written. The spaces between them are also used, being employed in conjunction with a clef in order to give a graphic indication of pitch
-
any set of five lines in this system together with its clef
the treble staff
-
verb
noun
Grammar
See collective noun.
Usage
Plural word for staff The plural form of staff is staffs. For some meanings of the word staff, staves, pronounced [ steyvz ] is also an acceptable plural form. However, it is easier to use the plural form staffs, which is valid for all meanings of the word staff. The plural of several other words that end in -f are also formed this way, including playoff/playoffs, cliff/cliffs, and roof/roofs. In some instances, words that end in -f are made plural by changing the ending to -ves, as in half/halves or leaf/leaves, which derives directly from their original pluralization in Old English. This is the plural form we see in staff/staves.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
staffsimple
-
staffssimple
-
have staffedperfect
-
has staffedperfect
-
am staffingprogressive
-
are staffingprogressive
-
is staffingprogressive
-
have been staffingperfect progressive
-
has been staffingperfect progressive
Past
-
staffedsimple
-
had staffedperfect
-
was staffingprogressive
-
were staffingprogressive
-
had been staffingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of staff1
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun staf(fe), stafte, Old English stæf, stæb; cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Old Norse stafr staff, Sanskrit root stabh- “support”
Origin of staff2
An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; of obscure origin; perhaps from German Stoff stuff
Explanation
Staff means everyone who works at a particular place. You might suspect that the town library's not a very fun place to work if its staff is always incredibly cranky every time you visit. Staff refers to all of the employees at a business, or especially a school, where the teachers as a group are called "the staff." A completely different meaning of staff is a long wooden stick or rod, particularly one that has a specific purpose — like a walking stick or a weapon. This is the original meaning of staff, from the Old English stæf. It wasn't until the nineteenth century that the word staff was used to mean "group of employees."
Vocabulary lists containing staff
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary from an excerpt from "Confessions of a 30-Year-Old Gamer," by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Music - Introductory
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
"When you upregulate SORLA, you can suppress the negative effects found in tauopathies," said Huijie Huang, PhD, a staff scientist in the Huang lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys and lead author of the study.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
It lived in the queens who could read a face from across the room, the regulars who noticed an absence and the staff who could feel the room change before anyone else did.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
At the Stormy Cup cafe, staff had become accustomed to serving cast and crew members in recent years, but now they are catering for more tourists.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Alfonzo’s familiarity with the Dodgers’ pitching staff from spring training has helped provide some stability in Smith’s absence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
“No. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. I don’t want you to clean up my room or bring me coffee. They have staff here to do that.”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
The position was created by statute in the 1800s; the marshal serves as the chief of police for the court, attends each court session, and handles ministerial duties, like paying the justices and their staffs.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
He helps decide who staffs agencies, what gets funded, which direction the country points in when it comes to research.
From Slate ● Jan. 20, 2026
These funds-of-funds typically employ large staffs to rigorously analyze the track record of other hedge funds in hopes of identifying those with the greatest probability of producing impressive future returns.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025
From professional-services firms to technology companies, employers are pushing their staffs to learn generative AI and integrate programs like ChatGPT, Gemini or customized company-specific tools into their work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
They had no witch or sorcerer, and seemed not to recognize the young wizards’ staffs for what they were, admiring them only for the precious stuff they were made of, wood.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
For many Americans taking a weight-loss drug, Thanksgiving presents a conundrum: Take the weekly dose that staves off hunger, or push it off so they can feast?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
"In our model, the barrel staves spread out in steps," he says, "each step representing a new limiting factor that becomes active as the cell grows faster."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025
France's Emmanuel Macron was on Friday due to pick a head of government tasked with pulling the country out of a political gridlock, in a move that staves off fresh elections for now.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
However, that only staves off the pressure for a moment as the kick fails to make touch and Ireland are on the front foot again.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2024
The circus lions don’t care to know that their leader is a weakling human; the fiction guarantees their social well-being and staves off violent anarchy.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
They are usually staffed by lifelong public servants who, in an ideal world, are focused solely on making sure government officials properly use their taxpayer-funded budgets and legal authority.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
It says China's chemical industry is "massive", with 160,000 companies, and despite steps by authorities to implement controls, oversight is "insufficiently staffed and equipped".
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Samaritan’s Purse, which is currently staffed by Americans, will eventually transition to being run by Venezuelan doctors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
With the changes, MS NOW will still have 20 hours of live programming each weekend and will be staffed to handle breaking news.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
They will take me to the Children’s Aid Society, a place staffed by friendly social workers who keep the children in their care warm and dry and fed.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department was working Tuesday to get approval from the state to augment staffing and pre-deploy resources, said Mike Gray, a public information officer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
To help fill the staffing gap, the FAA said it expects five supervisors and, by the end of July, four trainees to be qualified to help manage traffic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Security commissioner under the Biden administration, said the staffing issues and long wait times may discourage people from applying.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
With 11 patients on the ward, staffing levels meant a member of staff would have had to observe a patient roughly every 54 seconds.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
There the rejected items, which are about 90 percent of try-ons, are folded and put on hangers by whoever is staffing the fitting room, then placed in fresh shopping carts for Melissa and me.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
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.
