instructor

English

Alternative forms

• instructour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin instructor, equivalent to instruct +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɹʌktɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

instructor (plural instructors)

1. One who instructs; a teacher.
   • 2014 March 14, Jacqueline Taylor, “Life without tenure: how I've found fulfilment in US academia”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     According to the National Centre for Education Statistics' most recent numbers (2012), 50% of instructors at degree-granting institutions in the US are part-time. […] Through teaching as an adjunct instructor while still a graduate student, I've had the luxury of developing my career: testing out teaching strategies, exploring innovative courses, and developing relationships with students – all while working on my dissertation.

Synonyms

• instructer (much less common)

Hyponyms

• instructress (female, dated)
• instructrix (female, dated)

Derived terms

• drill instructor
• instructoress
• instructorish
• instructorship
• teleinstructor

Related terms

• instruct

Translations

one who instructs; a teacher

• Arabic: مُعَلِّم (ar) m (muʕallim), مُعَلِّمَة f (muʕallima)
• Belarusian: інстру́ктар m (instrúktar), інстру́ктарка f (instrúktarka)
• Bengali: মুর্শিদ (bn) (murśid), মুয়াল্লিম (bn) (muẏallim)
• Bulgarian: инстру́ктор (bg) m (instrúktor)
• Catalan: instructor (ca) m
• Chechen: хьехархо (ḥʳexarxo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 教練 / 教练 (zh) (jiàoliàn)

• Czech: instruktor m
• Danish: instruktør c
• Dutch: leermeester (nl) m, leermeesteres (nl) f, instructeur (nl) m, instructrice (nl) f
• Estonian: instruktor
• Finnish: opettaja (fi), kouluttaja (fi), ohjaaja (fi)
• French: instructeur (fr) m, instructrice (fr) f
• Galician: instrutor (gl) m
• German: Ausbilder (de) m, Ausbilderin (de) f, Lehrender m, Lehrende f, Lehrer (de) m, Lehrerin (de) f, Dozent (de) m (university-level), Dozentin (de) f (university-level)
• Greek: διδάσκαλος (el) m (didáskalos), διδασκάλισσα (el) f (didaskálissa), δάσκαλος (el) m (dáskalos), δασκάλα (el) f (daskála), εκπαιδευτής (el) m (ekpaideftís), εκπαιδεύτρια (el) f (ekpaidéftria)

  Ancient Greek: κατηχητής m (katēkhētḗs), διδάσκαλος (didáskalos)

• Hungarian: oktató (hu), tanár (hu)
• Italian: istruttore (it), insegnante (it)
• Japanese: インストラクター (insutorakutā), 教師 (ja) (きょうし, kyōshi)
• Kalmyk: зааһач (zaağaç)
• Korean: 강사(講師) (ko) (gangsa), 교사(敎師) (ko) (gyosa)
• Kyrgyz: нускоочу (nuskoocu)
• Latin: docens (la) m or f, praeceptor (la) m, praeceptrix f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: instruktør m, instruktrise m or f (female), instruktørinne m or f (female)

  Nynorsk: instruktør m, instruktrise f (female)

• Persian: آموزگار (fa) (âmuzgâr), مدرس (fa) (modarres), معلم (fa) (mo'allem)
• Polish: instruktor (pl) m, instruktorka (pl) f
• Portuguese: instrutor (pt) m, instrutora f, instructor m (obsolete spelling), instructora f (obsolete spelling)
• Romanian: instructor (ro) m, instructoare (ro) f
• Russian: инстру́ктор (ru) m (instrúktor), инстру́кторша (ru) f (instrúktorša), преподава́тель (ru) m (prepodavátelʹ), преподава́тельница (ru) f (prepodavátelʹnica), учи́тель (ru) m (učítelʹ), учи́тельница (ru) f (učítelʹnica), тре́нер (ru) m (tréner) (sports), тре́нерша (ru) f (trénerša) (sports)
• Spanish: instructor (es) m, instructora (es) f
• Swedish: instruktör (sv) c, instruktris (sv) c (female), handledare (sv) c, handledarinna c (female), lärare (sv) c, lärarinna (sv) c (female), utbildare c
• Tagalog: dalubturo, Dtro.
• Tajik: омӯзгор (tg) (omüzgor), муаллим (tg) (muallim)
• Thai: อาจารย์ (th) (aa-jaan)
• Ukrainian: інстру́ктор m (instrúktor), інстру́кторка f (instrúktorka)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnstrūctōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ins.tɾukˈtu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central, Northwestern) [ins.tɾukˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ins.tɾukˈtoɾ]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

instructor (feminine instructora, masculine plural instructors, feminine plural instructores)

1. instructive

Noun

instructor m (plural instructors, feminine instructora, feminine plural instructores)

1. instructor

Related terms

• instruir

Further reading

• “instructor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “instructor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “instructor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “instructor”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *enstrowō

Latin īnstruō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin īnstrūctor

From īnstruō (“build, construct; arrange”) + -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ĩːˈstruːk.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [inˈstruk.tor]

Noun

īnstrūctor m (genitive īnstrūctōris); third declension

1. Someone who arranges something; preparer.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	īnstrūctor	īnstrūctōrēs
genitive	īnstrūctōris	īnstrūctōrum
dative	īnstrūctōrī	īnstrūctōribus
accusative	īnstrūctōrem	īnstrūctōrēs
ablative	īnstrūctōre	īnstrūctōribus
vocative	īnstrūctor	īnstrūctōrēs

Related terms

• īnstrūctē
• īnstrūctiō
• īnstrūctūra
• īnstrūctus
• īnstrūmentum
• īnstruō

Descendants

• Catalan: instructor
• English: instructor
• French: instructeur
• Galician: instrutor
• → German: Instruktor
• Italian: istruttore
• Portuguese: instrutor
• Romanian: instructor
• Russian: инстру́ктор (instrúktor)
• Spanish: instructor

References

• “instructor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “instructor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "instructor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “instructor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Noun

instructor m (plural instructores, feminine instructora, feminine plural instructoras)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of instrutor

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French instructeur. Compare Russian инстру́ктор (instrúktor).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inˈstruk.tor/

Noun

instructor m (plural instructori, feminine equivalent instructoare)

1. instructor

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	instructor	instructorul	instructori	instructorii
genitive-dative	instructor	instructorului	instructori	instructorilor
vocative	instructorule		instructorilor

Related terms

• instructaj
• instructiv
• instructivitate
• instrucție, instrucțiune
• instrucțional

See also

• instrui

References

• “instructor”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin īnstructor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /instɾuɡˈtoɾ/ [ĩns.t̪ɾuɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: ins‧truc‧tor

Noun

instructor m (plural instructores, feminine instructora, feminine plural instructoras)

1. instructor, teacher

   Synonyms: monitor, maestro

Related terms

• instruir

Further reading

• “instructor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025