professor
/pɹəˈfɛs.ɚ/noun
professor is spelled P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R. The wrong spelling people search most is proffessor: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 41 of all searches for the word. Professor is a noun meaning “The most senior rank for an academic at a university or similar institution”. The plural of professor is professors.
How many letters and syllables are in professor?
| Letters | 9: P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 79 times per million words; the 1,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, proffessor, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell professor?
Professor is spelled P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 41 of the searches for professor in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is professor?
Professor appears 79 times per million words in written English, the 1,338th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce professor?
- UK /pɹəˈfɛs.ə/
- US /pɹəˈfɛs.ɚ/
- Australia /pɹəˈfes.ə/
Professor has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-professor.ogg, En-us-professor.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-professor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with professor?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as professor from its last stressed vowel (/ɛsəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of professor
- professors plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does professor mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The most senior rank for an academic at a university or similar institution.
- 2
USinformalA teacher or faculty member at a college or university regardless of formal rank.
- 3
archaicOne who professes something, such as a religious doctrine.
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;
- 4
obsoleteA practitioner, one who (publicly) practises or teaches an art or skill.
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 ho
- 5
USslangA pianist in a saloon, brothel, etc.
- 6
The puppeteer who performs a Punch and Judy show; a Punchman.
noun
- 1
The title for someone who holds the job of professor.
- 2
derogatoryinformalA mock title for a person seen as pedantic or obsessive on a topic.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate professor?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of professor: prof.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Professor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense higher ranking for a teacher or faculty member at a college or university:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | professeur, professeure, professeuse, prof |
| German | Professor, Professorin, Professorsgattin, Prof., Prof, Hochschulprofessor |
| Portuguese | professor, professora |
| Spanish | profesor, profesora, maestro catedrático endowed chair, maestra catedrática, endowed chair, maestro catedrático, endowed chair |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does professor come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).