professor
/pɹəˈfɛs.ɚ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.90 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The most senior rank for an academic at a university or similar institution.
noun
A teacher or faculty member at a college or university regardless of formal rank.
American usage; Informal
noun
The puppeteer who performs a Punch and Judy show; a Punchman.
noun
The title for someone who holds the job of professor.
Example Sentences
- "Professor is what you become after teaching for twenty to thirty years."
- "[…] I alvvayes thought / It vvas both impious and vnnaturall, / That ſuch immanity and bloody ſtrife / Should reigne among Profeſſors of one Faith."
- "As for Religion, I have not said, much lesse meant irreverently of it, or of the Professors thereof."
- "This period in which Abraham the Jew lived was one in which Magic was almost universally believed in, and in which its Professors were held in honour;"
- "Two young men of familiar acquaintance … were one euening at a common Inne of this town (as I haue heard) where the one of them shewed his skill on the Virginals, to the no little contentement of the hearers. Nowe as diuers guests of the house came into the room to listen, so among the rest entered an artificiall Conny-catcher, who as occasion serued, in the time of ceissing betweene the seueral toyes and fancies hee plaid: very much commended his cunning, quicke hand, and such qualities praiseworthy in such a professour."
- "You could hear […] pianos under the hands of whorehouse professors sounding like they came with keys between the keys."
Etymology
From Middle English professor, professour, from Anglo-Norman proffessur and its etymon Latin professor (“declarer, person who claims knowledge”), from the past participle stem of profiteor (“profess”). By surface analysis, profess + -or.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰeh₂-, professor,professour, proffessur, professor
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɹəˈfɛs.ɚ/
- British English: /pɹəˈfɛs.ə/