noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of trainee
Explanation
If you're a trainee, you're being taught to do a new job. If you're hired at your local grocery store, you'll likely spend some time as a trainee before you're allowed to work the cash register on your own. Whenever someone goes through training, especially for a new job or skill, they can be called a trainee. If you're learning a new computer coding language, you might be a Python or Java trainee. And if you're in your first week at a coffee shop job, you're probably still a barista trainee. Trainee dates back to the mid-19th century, from the verb train, "instruct."
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:
At accounting firm Grant Thornton, just 10% of U.K. trainee intakes were apprentices in 2010.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
As he finished helping a fellow trainee gear up, one paratrooper wished another good luck with a firm handshake.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
He has no problem expressing his displeasure at being inconvenienced by his unwanted trainee or earthbound law enforcement officers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Those familiar with this mythology know this trainee dynamic isn’t how the Green Lantern’s succession usually works.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
With special dispensation from the Vatican, she took her vows and entered a convent in Madras as a trainee novice.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
She declined to disclose her salary, but trainees in her field are reported to make $70,000 to $80,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Macauley credited the progress to a "beautiful partnership" between herself, her students and other trainees.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
The talent pool McKinnon pulls from includes theater managers, retired projectionists, trainees from specialized college programs and even workers in other professions who take PTO for the occasion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
In the classroom, trainees crowded around instructor Luo Duocheng as he demonstrated slicing a slab of beef, marinating it, and skewering the meat to form identical kebabs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
She gazed around at the other unfortunate trainees who had ended up here.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
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.
