Noun
After college, her professor became her close friend and mentor.
He needed a mentor to teach him about the world of politics.
We volunteer as mentors to disadvantaged children.
young boys in need of mentorsVerb
The young intern was mentored by the country's top heart surgeon.
Our program focuses on mentoring teenagers.
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Noun
His coaching mentors were Hill, San Diego State’s Claude Gilbert and Don Coryell, and Yoder, Jeoff and Sharon Meek said.—Dan Albano, Oc Register, 11 July 2025 Working as a network administrator, the specialist provides leadership on highly complex information technology projects, acting in a lead capacity and as a mentor to staff members.—Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado
july 10, Sacbee.com, 10 July 2025
Verb
The goal shouldn’t be to import talent or extract ideas but to actively engage through open-source projects, mentoring relationships, co-building initiatives and shared platforms.—Daniel Jebaraj, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025 There are many ways to contribute: presenting, mentoring, helping organize or serving on the board.—Sonia Singh, Rolling Stone, 10 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for mentor
Word History
Etymology
Noun
as name borrowed from Latin Mentōr, borrowed from Greek Méntōr; as generic noun borrowed from French mentor, after Mentor, character in the novel Les aventures de Télémaque (1699) by the French cleric and writer François Fénelon (1651-1715), based on characters in the Odyssey
Note:
In Fénelon's work Mentor is a principal character, and his speeches and advice to Telemachus during their travels constitute much of the book's substance.
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