🤾 A part-time pro ⚽ Partly professional

semipro

2 6.6

A person who plays a sport for money but not as a full-time professional

noun
/ˈsɛmɪˌproʊ/

Informal

: semiprofesional

He signed a professional contract with the St. Louis Browns in 1933 and pitched for the AA Milwaukee Brewers, but returned home to become an amateur and semipro legend.
semipro ball

Examples

Many semipro players in our league also work as teachers or in other professions.
" Al had been a Golden Glover and a semipro.

Fiction book (1992)
We're playing a semipro team.

The Longest Yard (1974)
Mr. Crewe, what do you think of semipro ball?

The Longest Yard (1974)
You find yourself some hungry semipro team that's not in your league.

The Longest Yard (1974)
Good afternoon and welcome to a very special edition of ESPN football, as today, the semipro Allenville Federal Prison guards will be taking on the very prisoners they guard.

The Longest Yard (2005)
My wife is a former semipro athlete who played basketball before becoming a coach.
He played for a local semipro team during the summer while working a full-time job.

Synonyms

semiprofessional

vssemipro

1 4.7

A person who plays a sport for pay part time while having another job

is the shorter, informal written form used instead of the longer word

Antonyms

professional

16 3.5

An athlete who is paid to play a sport

How Professional

professional

401 3.7

semipro

Informal

2 6.6

amateur

122 2.8

Surface Forms

semipro singular

semipros plural

Morphology

semipro = pro (semi-transparent) = semi + pro

The meaning is largely compositional from semi- plus pro, but the noun sense is a fairly specialized sports term rather than a fully general phrase.

Etymology

Semipro comes from semi- meaning 'half' or 'partly' and pro meaning 'professional', as you see in semicircle and professional. So a semipro is a person who is paid to play but not a full-time professional.