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
Elsie explains that this is her Junior Researcher trainee lab partner, Gemma, and I instantly feel jealous.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
“One of these trainees killed someone in Oklahoma that should have never been on the roadway,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Praising a group of trainees on X, he wrote: “These Waterloo interns at baseten are hill climbing machines.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Macauley credited the progress to a "beautiful partnership" between herself, her students and other trainees.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
Hunched over sizzling grills and shrouded in smoke, trainees at the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in southern China roast skewer after skewer of succulent beef tendon, perfecting the skills that could land them a restaurant job.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
Apparently the Junior Researcher trainees all have to attend a presentation from some really old, really famous magical scientist who’s visiting from the Bureau’s London outpost.
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.
