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.
If I say to a trainee, “You’re flinching,” that puts it in his head.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
But a week ago, a trainee paramedic spoke to the BBC about how she is now looking for work abroad because of a recruitment freeze in Wales.
From BBC • Apr. 20, 2026
A Welsh actor who portrays a trainee doctor in Emmy-award-winning hospital drama The Pitt says he has a "new found respect" for the medical profession owing to the show's highly realistic scenes.
From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026
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
She’s the only trainee to be invited to Director Fokus’s Movie Night for the Intellectually Inclined.
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.
