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instructor

/ɪnˈstrəktər/

/ɪnˈstrəktə/

Other forms: instructors

An instructor is a teacher. One can be an instructor of just about anything, but it usually applies to teaching hands-on skills, like a water-skiing instructor or the instructor of the knitting class held at the community center.

When you instruct, or teach, other people how to do something, you are their instructor. At a college, you might hear some of the people who teach classes referred to as instructors and others as professors. An instructor might teach only part-time, or be a graduate student, or, for the moment at least, not be on the path to receiving the title of professor. Still, instructors are teachers: they have their own classes and students.

Definitions of instructor
  1. noun
    a person whose occupation is teaching
    synonyms: teacher
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    examples:
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    Apostle of Germany
    (Roman Catholic Church) Anglo-Saxon missionary who was sent to Frisia and Germany to spread the Christian faith; was martyred in Frisia (680-754)
    David Livingstone
    Scottish missionary and explorer who discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls (1813-1873)
    John Thomas Scopes
    Tennessee highschool teacher who violated a state law by teaching evolution; in a highly publicized trial in 1925 he was prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan and defended by Clarence Darrow (1900-1970)
    Marcus Whitman
    United States frontier missionary who established a post in Oregon where Christianity and schooling and medicine were available to Native Americans (1802-1847)
    Saint Francis Xavier
    Spanish missionary and Jesuit who establish missionaries in Japan and Ceylon and the East Indies (1506-1552)
    types:
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    art teacher
    someone who teaches art
    Bahai
    a teacher of or believer in Bahaism
    catechist
    one who instructs catechumens in preparation for baptism (especially one using a catechism)
    coach, private instructor, tutor
    a person who gives private instruction (as in singing, acting, etc.)
    dance master, dancing-master
    a professional teacher of dancing
    demonstrator
    a teacher or teacher's assistant who demonstrates the principles that are being taught
    docent
    a teacher at some universities
    English professor, English teacher
    someone who teaches English
    French teacher
    someone who teaches French
    governess
    a woman entrusted with the care and supervision of a child (especially in a private home)
    instructress
    a woman instructor
    math teacher, mathematics teacher
    someone who teaches mathematics
    missionary
    someone who attempts to convert others to a particular doctrine or program
    music teacher
    someone who teaches music
    don, preceptor
    teacher at a university or college (especially at Cambridge or Oxford)
    reading teacher
    someone who teaches students to read
    riding master
    someone who teaches horsemanship
    school teacher, schoolteacher
    a teacher in a school below the college level
    science teacher
    someone who teaches science
    section man
    someone who teaches a section of a large college course
    teaching fellow
    a graduate student with teaching responsibilities
    crammer
    a teacher who is paid to cram students for examinations
    games-master, games-mistress
    the teacher in charge of games at a school
    geometry teacher
    someone who teaches geometry
    piano teacher
    someone who teaches students to play the piano
    mistress, schoolma'am, schoolmarm, schoolmistress
    a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict)
    Cyril, Saint Cyril, St. Cyril
    Greek missionary; the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet is attributed to him (826-869)
    type of:
    educator, pedagog, pedagogue
    someone who educates young people
Pronunciation
US

/ɪnˈstrəktər/

UK

/ɪnˈstrəktə/

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