adjunct

ad·junct | \ ˈa-ˌjəŋ(k)t

Definition of adjunct

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : something joined or added to another thing but not essentially a part of it The website is designed as an adjunct to the book.

2 grammar

a : a word or word group that qualifies or completes the meaning of another word or other words and is not itself a main structural element in its sentence

b : an adverb or adverbial phrase (such as heartily in "They ate heartily" or at noon in "We left at noon") attached to the verb of a clause especially to express a relation of time, place, frequency, degree, or manner — compare disjunct sense 2

3a : an associate or assistant of another

b : an adjunct faculty member at a college or university (see adjunct entry 2 sense 2)

4 : adjuvant sense b

adjunct

adjective

Definition of adjunct (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : added or joined as an accompanying object or circumstance

2 : attached in a subordinate or temporary capacity to a staff an adjunct professor

Other Words from adjunct Synonyms Breaking Down Adjunct More Example Sentences Learn More about adjunct

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Examples of adjunct in a Sentence

Noun Because Joseph Ellis has been an outspoken critic of social and women's history, he appears a peculiar choice to write the foreword, despite his many publications on the Revolutionary era. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he treats Abigail here more as her husband's adjunct and supporter than as her own woman. — Anthony Lewis, New York Times Book Review, 4 Nov. 2007 As an adjunct to its basic educational role, the public library will increasingly serve as an access point to the resources of other libraries as well as to nonlibrary sources of publicly available information. — Fred Lerner, The Story of Libraries, (1945) 1998 In A.D. 400 western Europe was merely a geographic expression. Roman civilization was centered on the Mediterranean, and France, England, and the Rhine valley were mere adjuncts of the Mediterranean world. — Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993 Massage therapy can be used as an adjunct along with the medication. In “They ate heartily,” the word heartily is an adjunct and in “We left at noon,” the phrase at noon is an adjunct. Adjective But it's Sainte-Marie's less-well-known life as a computer geek—and an adjunct professor of digital art, Native American studies, and philosophy at several universities—that brings her to midtown Manhattan today. — Ophira Edut, Ms., August/September 1999 There is a terrible shortage of jobs in the universities, where, increasingly, men and women with Ph.D.s hang on to various forms of underpaid adjunct posts. Believe me, it happens at Harvard, too. — Martin Peretz, New Republic, 5 July 1999 Using his chauffeur-driven car as an adjunct office, the designer shuttles among the design ateliers of his three major collections: the one that bears his name; Chanel, and, after a seven-year hiatus, Chloé. — Carrie Donovan, New York Times Magazine, 11 Oct. 1992 massage therapy as an adjunct treatment

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Entrepreneur, politician, mason, radio host, boxing promoter and adjunct professor were just some of his titles listed in a 2005 profile in The Enquirer. — Scott Wartman, Cincinnati.com, "Ohio Election: Dems choose Alicia Reece for county commissioner," 14 May 2020 Entrepreneur, politician, mason, radio host, boxing promoter and adjunct professor were just some of his titles listed in a 2005 profile in The Enquirer. — Scott Wartman, Cincinnati.com, "Hamilton County Commissioner race too close to call. Pillich and Reece locked in tight fight.," 29 Apr. 2020 The Democrats and their note-takers would like the public to believe that Barr’s investigation is an adjunct of the Trump 2020 campaign — and a grossly improper one at that. — Andrew C. Mccarthy, National Review, "Do Republicans See the Strategy to Discredit the Barr Investigation?," 2 Oct. 2019 Yet to date, Freifeld and other experts agree that the field’s promise remains more as an adjunct than a substitute for conventional surveillance. — Katherine Ellison, Scientific American, "Social Media Posts and Online Searches Hold Vital Clues about Pandemic Spread," 30 Mar. 2020 In the early 1990s researchers proposed it as an adjunct to early protease inhibitor drugs to help treat HIV/AIDS. — Adam Rogers, Wired, "An Old Malaria Drug May Fight Covid-19—and Silicon Valley's Into It," 19 Mar. 2020 Universities are cutting costs and corporatizing, moving away from tenure-track professorships and relying more on adjuncts and graduate students, which partly explains the wave of unionization efforts, Wong said. — NBC News, "UC Berkeley student workers awarded millions in back pay," 19 Jan. 2020 The University of New Mexico announced Friday the adjunct and faculty endorsed two proposals in favor of union representation after two days of voting. — USA TODAY, "Massive pumpkin, runaway emu, 38-year-old penguin dies: News from around our 50 states," 21 Oct. 2019 The movie knows a thing that is, apparently, rather difficult to say: that the system of higher learning in the United States is not just an adjunct to the class system or handmaiden of it. — Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, "A Lifetime Movie Nails the College-Admissions Scandal," 10 Oct. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective Kevin Mitchell Mercer is an adjunct professor of history at the University of Central Florida. — USA Today, "A professor gives a challenging assignment; his students' responses move him to tears," 24 Apr. 2020 Gerald McKeegan, adjunct astronomer for the Chabot Space & Science Center, said the Lyrid shower is debris left by a comet called Thatcher that was discovered in 1861. — Kellie Hwang, SFChronicle.com, "Lyrid meteor shower is coming to an end, but you might get lucky and catch a shooting star," 23 Apr. 2020 Their life was, culturally speaking, an adjunct to Western Europe and America; their values were a hybrid, in which India was served nominally while the West was reduced to a source of permissiveness and materialism. — Aatish Taseer, The Atlantic, "India Is No Longer India," 10 Apr. 2020 Piracha added that teaching requires professionals to remain up to date on the most cutting-edge research in their respective fields, meaning that adjunct faculty doctors and patients will benefit from the student-teacher dynamic as well. — Melanie Feuk, Houston Chronicle, "Houston Methodist Willowbrook partners with Texas A&M to become a teaching hospital," 24 Jan. 2020 At least 400 have died from the illness in the U.S. Bessler is a professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. — Joseph Simonson, Washington Examiner, "Amy Klobuchar's husband hospitalized with coronavirus," 23 Mar. 2020 After the House voted to impeach, the president enlisted Mr. Meadows and other Republican allies as adjunct members of his defense team for the Senate trial, deployed to the cameras to denounce the case. — Peter Baker, New York Times, "Fourth Time’s the Charm? Mark Meadows Takes Over Trump’s White House," 7 Mar. 2020 Amit Kaushal Amit Kaushal is a clinical assistant professor of medicine and an adjunct professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. — Amit Kaushal, Scientific American, "The Talent Gap Holding Back Digital Medicine," 1 Feb. 2020 Most vaccines take between five and 15 years to come to market, says Jon Andrus, an adjunct professor of global vaccinology and vaccine policy at the Milken Institute of Public Health of George Washington University. — Megan Molteni, Wired, "Everything You Need to Know About Coronavirus Vaccines," 4 Mar. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adjunct.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

21 May 2020

Cite this Entry

“Adjunct.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adjunct. Accessed 29 May. 2020.

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More Definitions for adjunct

adjunct

noun

English Language Learners Definition of adjunct

(Entry 1 of 2)

: something that is joined or added to another thing but is not an essential part of it

grammar : a word or phrase (such as an adverb or prepositional phrase) that provides added information about the meaning of a verb in a sentence by expressing a relation of time, place, manner, etc.

adjunct

adjective

English Language Learners Definition of adjunct (Entry 2 of 2)

: added or joined in order to be used with something

: added to a teaching staff for only a short time or in a lower position than other staff

See the full definition for adjunct in the English Language Learners Dictionary

adjunct

noun

ad·junct | \ ˈaj-ˌəŋ(k)t