staff

¹ American  

[staf, stahf] / stæf, stɑf /

noun

• staffs,
  plural,  plural
• staves
  plural

1. a group of persons, as employees, charged with carrying out the work of an establishment or executing some undertaking.

2. a group of assistants to a manager, superintendent, or executive.

3. a member of a staff.

4. Military.

   1. a body of officers without command authority, appointed to assist a commanding officer.

   2. the parts of any army concerned with administrative matters, planning, etc., rather than with actual participation in combat.

5. those members of an organization serving only in an auxiliary or advisory capacity on a given project.

6. a stick, pole, or rod for aid in walking or climbing, for use as a weapon, etc.

7. a rod or wand serving as a symbol of office or authority, as a crozier, baton, truncheon, or mace.

8. a pole on which a flag is hung or displayed.

9. something that supports or sustains.

10. Music. Also a set of horizontal lines, now five in number, with the corresponding four spaces between them, on which music is written.

11. Archaic. the shaft of a spear, lance, etc.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a military or organizational staff.

   a staff officer; staff meetings.

2. (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)

• staffs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• staffed,
  past participle,  past
• staffing
  present participle

1. to provide with a staff of assistants or workers.

   She staffed her office with excellent secretaries.

2. to serve on the staff of.

3. 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)

• staffs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• staffed,
  past participle,  past
• staffing
  present participle

1. to hire employees, as for a new office or project (sometimes followed byup ).

   Next month we'll begin staffing up for the reelection campaign.

staff ² American  

[staf, stahf] / stæf, stɑf /

noun

1. a composition of plaster and fibrous material used for a temporary finish and in ornamental work, as on exposition buildings.

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staff ¹ British  

/ stɑːf /

noun

1. a group of people employed by a company, individual, etc, for executive, clerical, sales work, etc

2. (modifier) attached to or provided for the staff of an establishment

   a staff doctor

3. the body of teachers or lecturers of an educational institution, as distinct from the students

4. the officers appointed to assist a commander, service, or central headquarters organization in establishing policy, plans, etc

5. a stick with some special use, such as a walking stick or an emblem of authority

6. something that sustains or supports

   bread is the staff of life

7. a pole on which a flag is hung

8. Usual US name: rod. a graduated rod used in surveying, esp for sighting to with a levelling instrument

9. Also called: stave. music

   1. 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

   2. any set of five lines in this system together with its clef

      the treble staff

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verb

1. (tr) to provide with a staff

staff ² British  

/ stɑːf /

noun

1. a mixture of plaster and hair used to cover the external surface of temporary structures and for decoration

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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

• staffless
  adjective
• unstaffed
  adjective
• well-staffed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• staffs
  plural
• staves
  plural

Participles

• staffing
  present
• staffed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• staff
  simple
• staffs
  simple
• have staffed
  perfect
• has staffed
  perfect
• am staffing
  progressive
• are staffing
  progressive
• is staffing
  progressive
• have been staffing
  perfect progressive
• has been staffing
  perfect progressive

Past

• staffed
  simple
• had staffed
  perfect
• was staffing
  progressive
• were staffing
  progressive
• had been staffing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will staff
  simple
• will have staffed
  perfect
• will be staffing
  progressive
• will have been staffing
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

staff staffs staves staffed staffing

Now, a charity wants better training for airport staff so people with stomas are treated with "dignity" and "respect".

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Its staff are asking big banks how they value the private-credit loans on their books.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026

"No micro-organisms linked to the young woman's professional work were found in her biological samples," Kobzev said, adding that no other staff at the institute had sought medical attention since her death.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Scientists studied a group of adult male African lions after animal care staff added whole carcasses every nine days to an existing feeding routine designed around periods of eating and fasting.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

He snapped his fingers and two men wearing the Academy staff uniform came forward to take our bags.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

These AI-native companies have tiny staffs and fewer bosses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Allen’s shows are significantly less expensive to produce than the traditional sofa-and-desk format for a major TV network, which have traditionally used high-priced hosts, live bands and substantial writing staffs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 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

But small businesses, which had cut roles on net in November, grew their staffs last month, putting private-sector jobs in positive territory overall, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

I shuttled between meetings with various department heads, worked with the staffs of city commissioners, and was dispatched sometimes to different neighborhoods around Chicago to follow up on personal complaints received by the mayor.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Early-morning pilgrims had arrived by foot or car, some in traditional white smocks and thatched hats, carrying wooden staves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

"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

It means not all the cuts will go ahead and it staves off effective bankruptcy, but it also saddles Havering with high debt repayments for the next 20 years.

From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2024

Bran watched them from the balcony of Maester Luwin's turret, listening to them grunt and strain and curse as they swung their staves and wooden swords.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

That’s a big drop when you consider the fact that outside of New York City, more than 80% to 85% of fire departments are staffed by volunteers, according to the same organization.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

He began opening small nurseries, staffed by volunteers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

A China-based app studio built a network of more than 20 dating apps that claimed to be staffed by real people but were secretly run by Claude.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

And investors may have underappreciated just how strong second-quarter earnings were, according to Patrick Palfrey, head of portfolio strategy at Seaport Research Partners, a Chicago-based research firm staffed by many Wall Street veterans.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

My high school, staffed by the Christian Brothers, offered a more ‘Protestant’ education.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

“The district has not sufficiently adjusted staffing and facilities use in response to declining enrollment.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

The company, he said, also invested in staffing and infrastructure at that time, when growth expectations were higher.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart has enlisted Lady Gaga for a recruitment campaign, convincing the pop icon to trade vocal registers for cash registers in an effort to plug staffing shortages at thousands of outlets.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

You haven’t seen how, at every step in creating, tooling and staffing a factory, Astra might be stymied into cul-de-sacs that a human helper would repeatedly have to steer it out of.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

“I remember seeing Harry Glicken curled up in a dark corner at the Vancouver headquarters,” said Brugman who was still staffing the phones late that day.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Related Words

• cadre
• crew
• faculty
• force
• organization
• personnel
• team
• work force