postdoctoral

adjective

post·​doc·​tor·​al ˌpōs(t)-ˈdäk-t(ə-)rəl 

ˈpōst-ˌdäk-

variants or less commonly postdoctorate

ˌpōs(t)-ˈdäk-t(ə-)rət 

ˈpōst-ˌdäk-

: being beyond the doctoral level:

a

: of or relating to advanced academic or professional work beyond a doctor's degree

a postdoctoral fellowship

b

: engaged in such work

postdoctoral scholars

Examples of postdoctoral in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Matthew Holland, a postdoctoral researcher in medicinal chemistry at the UK’s University of Oxford, said that researchers were searching in new and extreme environments, such as ice caves and the seafloor, for biomolecules that could be developed into new antibiotic drugs. —Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 20 Feb. 2026

Kaitlyn Purcell is a Dene artist, writer, and postdoctoral scholar (University of Calgary). —Hazlitt, 18 Feb. 2026

Anchrum, a postdoctoral fellow, interviewed former Mercy-Douglass nurses as part of her doctoral research. —Brandon Goldner, CBS News, 18 Feb. 2026

Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers are the worker bees of academia, toiling in labs for years in hopes of one day running their own hive. —Jonathan Wosen, STAT, 4 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for postdoctoral

• epidural
• predoctoral
• deferral
• referral
• neral
• squirrel
• sural