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

The collaboration between museums also comes with a four-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Huo Family Foundation, which was funded by prominent arts philanthropist Yan Huo in 2009. —News Desk, Artforum, 18 May 2026

During the blaze, Alireza Namayandeh, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, collected samples of the smoke at a Pasadena park within the plume, using a device that filters and separates the particles. —Aarne Heikkila, NBC news, 14 May 2026

Its Graduate Research Fellowship Program, in operation since 1952, is the longest-running federal investment in America’s STEM workforce, and the primary federal funder of graduate and postdoctoral training in the physical sciences, mathematics, computer science, engineering, and political science. —Gautam Mukunda, Twin Cities, 14 May 2026

The company’s founding team includes MIT postdoctoral researchers, former Meta machine learning leaders, ex-Google engineers, and AI PhDs from HKUST and UC Berkeley. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 12 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for postdoctoral

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