adjunct

[ aj-uhngkt ]

noun

1. something added to another thing but not essential to it.

   Synonyms: supplement, appendix

2. a person associated with lesser status, rank, authority, etc., in some duty or service; assistant.

   Synonyms: attaché, aide

3. a person working at an institution, as a college or university, without having full or permanent status:

   My lawyer works two nights a week as an adjunct, teaching business law at the college.

4. Grammar. a modifying form, word, or phrase depending on some other form, word, or phrase, especially an element of clause structure with adverbial function.

adjective

1. joined or associated, especially in an auxiliary or subordinate relationship.
2. attached or belonging without full or permanent status:

   an adjunct surgeon on the hospital staff.

adjunct

/ ˈædʒʌŋkt; əˈdʒʌŋktɪv /

noun

1. something incidental or not essential that is added to something else
2. a person who is subordinate to another
3. grammar
   1. part of a sentence other than the subject or the predicate
   2. (in systemic grammar) part of a sentence other than the subject, predicator, object, or complement; usually a prepositional or adverbial group
   3. part of a sentence that may be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical; a modifier
4. logic another name for accident

adjective

1. added or connected in a secondary or subordinate position; auxiliary

Derived Forms

• ˈadjunctly, adverb
• adjunctive, adjective

Other Words From

• ad·junctly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of adjunct¹

1580–90; < Latin adjunctus joined to (past participle of adjungere ), equivalent to ad- ad- + jung- (nasal variant of jug- yoke ¹ ) + -tus past participle suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of adjunct¹

C16: from Latin adjunctus, past participle of adjungere to adjoin

Synonym Study

See addition.

Example Sentences

Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, a former classroom teacher and adjunct faculty member at San Diego State, was appointed to the District E seat in 2016, after it was vacated by a disgraced board member.

From Voice of San Diego

An adjunct professor at Stanford University, he’s also been a novelist, TV host of PBS’s The Brain, and science advisor for the HBO series Westworld.

From Nautilus

Lyndsay Levingston Christian is a multimedia talent, host and adjunct professor based in Houston, Texas.

From Essence.com

Robert Bazell is an adjunct professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale.

From Nautilus

She said the campuses all limit their tenured faculty so that they can retain flexibility to hire adjunct professors – and that flexibility could be utilized now to implement the requirement.

From Voice of San Diego

She appeared at his side, impish smile in place, dutiful, fragrantly rather than ferociously sexy, and—frustratingly—an adjunct.

From The Daily Beast

At first Wales and Sanger conceived of Wikipedia merely as an adjunct to Nupedia, sort of like a feeder product or farm team.

From The Daily Beast

Bouts of landays may be a formal part of a family gathering or may emerge more spontaneously as an adjunct to collective labor.

From The Daily Beast

“They got letters,” says Simo Muir, adjunct professor of Jewish Studies at Helsinki University.

From The Daily Beast

The students I teach as an adjunct are pointed toward midlevel careers.

From The Daily Beast

The arm in these childish drawings early develops the interesting adjunct of a hand.

From Project Gutenberg

As an adjunct of the policy of the deterrent workhouse for the able-bodied, we have to note the coming-in of compulsory detection.

From Project Gutenberg

"We must have a real door," said Shorty, looking critically at the strip of canvas that did duty for that important adjunct.

From Project Gutenberg

It will prove itself a most valuable adjunct to the excellent course of instruction given in our public schools.

From Project Gutenberg

Clarté, in fact, forms an adjunct of the Grand Orient and owns a lodge under its jurisdiction in Paris.

From Project Gutenberg