noun
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.
Like many doctors, Jenna Crosbie, a trainee GP in north Wales, would have been at a loss as to why a patient like Bethany Norman would refuse steroid creams.
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
A gladiator, it seems, moved up the ranks—often through training and victories in the arena—“like a trainee orator moving from imaginary speeches to those of the courtroom.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
West Midlands Railway, which has routes across the whole of the West Midlands, said it had increased the percentage of female trainee drivers in its workforce by nearly 9% since 2021, from 13.8% to 22.5%.
From BBC • Mar. 21, 2026
The convenience of modern life is “seductive,” writes Dr. Alex Curmi, a psychiatrist and trainee psychotherapist, for The Guardian.
From Salon • Mar. 3, 2026
“Let’s not pretend that means nothing. Can you imagine how difficult it’s going to be to explain to Merlin how we let a trainee destroy a priceless artifact of unending power?”
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
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.
