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full professor

full professor

4 3.7
A senior university teacher with the highest academic rank
  • noun
translation icon : profesor titular
  • And Ward Churchill was a full professor at one of the best schools in the nation.
  • full professor rank
  • promotion to full professor
  • full professor with tenure

My Ed has tracks not just for professors going from assistant to associate to full professor.

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Examples

  • He recently became a full professor in the Chemistry department and is excited to lead research projects.

  • Three years later, he was made a full professor at Stanford.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • At SFSU, she was a full professor of education.

    Academic text (1994)
  • He was a full professor at MIT in Physics.

  • Dr. Otranto is a full professor at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Italy.

    Academic text (2013)
  • I am a full professor of linguistics, the author of twenty-one highly regarded monographs.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • The author and co-author of several publications in these fields, he is a full professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University.

    Academic text (2003)
  • After many years of hard work, she was finally appointed a full professor at her university.

  • Being a full professor means you have achieved the highest academic rank in your field.

Synonyms

professor
vsfull professor
3.2

A senior teacher and researcher at a university or college

is always the institution's highest academic rank rather than sometimes holding it
prof
vsfull professor
  • Informal
323 7.9

A college or university teacher who gives lectures and advice to students

is a formal academic title that denotes the absolute highest rank

How Senior

full professor
4 3.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

full + professor

The adjective 'full' conveys completeness or a highest degree and 'professor' denotes an academic, so learners who know both words get a partial clue that this refers to a high-status professorship. However, recognizing it specifically as the formal highest academic rank (distinct from assistant or associate professor) depends on knowledge of academic title conventions rather than pure composition, so the meaning is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Full professor uses full in the sense of 'complete' or 'filled to the top', like a cup that cannot take more. A full professor is a professor who has reached the top rank at a college or university, so the phrase means 'the highest academic rank'.