adjunct

American  

[aj-uhngkt] / ˈædʒ ʌŋkt /

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.

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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 British  

/ 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

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adjective

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

Related Words

See addition.

Other Word Forms

• adjunctive adjective
• adjunctly adverb

Etymology

Origin of adjunct

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

Example Sentences

Administrators rely too heavily on student reviews when deciding whether to retain adjuncts, assistant professors and even associates.

From The Wall Street Journal

Emmy Thelander, an artist and adjunct professor at City University of New York, said it wasn’t the job’s requirements but their obsessive enumeration that was hardest to swallow.

From New York Times

“All the information is still in there,” said Michael Kleinman, an adjunct professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, Irvine.

From Seattle Times

Ms. Poussaint tutored and mentored District children and was an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Maryland.

From Washington Post

But Dr. Arthur W. Perry, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York and New Jersey and an adjunct associate professor of surgery at Columbia, is so worried that he refuses to do a BBL.

From New York Times