trainer
Americannoun
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a person or thing that trains.
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a staff member on an athletic team who gives first aid and therapy to injured players.
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a person who trains athletes; coach.
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a person who trains racehorses or other animals for contests, shows, or performances.
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an airplane or a simulated aircraft used in training aircrew members, especially pilots.
noun
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a person who trains athletes in a sport
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a piece of equipment employed in training, such as a simulated aircraft cockpit
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horse racing a person who schools racehorses and prepares them for racing
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(plural) an informal name for training shoes
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of trainer
Explanation
A trainer is someone who teaches or coaches someone, like the trainer at the gym who promises that she'll have you ready to run a marathon in four months. Some trainers can teach you how to do sit ups, while others can instruct you to program a computer or be an effective leader. Dog trainers teach dogs to follow commands — and they teach dog owners to give commands effectively. The noun trainer comes from the verb train, "to discipline or teach," from an earlier sense, "to manipulate to bring a desired form," the way a gardener trains a rose to grow up a trellis.
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.
Sian, a dog trainer, was brought up thinking that having children was simply "the thing you needed to do", despite not having any "real deep desire to be a mum".
From BBC • Jun. 28, 2026
She plays tennis a few times a week, goes to two Pilates classes, works out with a personal trainer and feels a decade younger.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 13, 2026
"I really have gone numb," fitness trainer Elaheh from Ahvaz told AFP.
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
Smalls, who moved to London from County Armagh in Northern Ireland two years ago, said he grew up with horse racing and that his uncle was a horse trainer.
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2026
Chiron was our head trainer at camp, but he’d never shown me anything like that.
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
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.
