What does adjunct mean?
An adjunct is a person or thing added to something larger as a supplementary, subordinate, or non-essential element. The word is most familiar today from higher education, where an adjunct professor is a university teacher appointed on a part-time, temporary, or non-tenure-track basis — often teaching the same courses as permanent faculty without the same job security or benefits. Beyond academia, an adjunct can be any accessory or appendage: a committee that serves as an adjunct to a board, or a garage built as an adjunct to a house. In grammar, an adjunct is a word or phrase — often an adverbial — that enriches a sentence with extra information but could be removed without breaking its structure. The term comes from Latin adjungere, "to join to," so at its heart it describes something joined onto a whole while remaining distinct from it. Its connotations are generally neutral, though in academic settings it now carries undertones of precarious employment.
nounA person who works in a secondary or auxiliary capacity, especially a university teacher hired on a part-time or temporary basis; also, a thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than essential part.
- A person attached to an institution or organization in a secondary or auxiliary capacity, especially a part-time or non-tenure-track college or university instructor.
- Something added to another thing as a supplementary, non-essential component or accompaniment.
- (Grammar) A word or phrase that is not essential to the grammatical structure of a sentence but adds information, such as an adverbial modifier.
"She taught two writing courses as an adjunct while finishing her dissertation."
"He worked as an adjunct lecturer in the history department while pursuing his own research."
"The new wing is merely an adjunct to the main hospital building."
Standard regular plural. Commonly used when referring collectively to contingent academic staff, e.g., "the department relies heavily on adjuncts."
"The university hired several new adjuncts for the fall semester."
In American universities today, adjunct professors make up the majority of the teaching workforce — yet most earn a fraction of what tenured colleagues do for teaching the same classes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of adjunct
Adjunct derives from the Latin verb adjungere, meaning "to join to," formed from ad- ("to, toward") plus jungere ("to join"). It entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially in scholarly and legal contexts before broadening into general use. It shares this Latin root with conjunction, disjunct, injunction, and juncture, all of which preserve the sense of joining or connecting embedded in jungere.
Related word forms
How adjunct is actually used
The word is neutral to slightly formal in register. In academic contexts, "adjunct" carries significant weight: an adjunct professor typically holds a contingent, part-time appointment without tenure, and the term has become associated with debates over labor conditions in higher education. As a general noun, it simply denotes something supplementary or subordinate. The adjective use (e.g., "adjunct professor") is common but is a noun used attributively rather than a fully separate adjective form.
Easily confused with adjunct
A conjunct is something joined together with another thing (or in grammar, a connective expression), whereas an adjunct is something added on as a supplement or subordinate attachment.