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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

professional.

A person who belongs to a profession.

12 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɹəˈfɛʃ.ə.nəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[pɹəˈfɛʃ.nəl]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/pɹəˈfeʃ.ə.nəl/Australia, New-Zealand[pɹəˈfeʃ.nəl]Australia, New-Zealand

  1. A person who belongs to a profession.

  2. A white-collar worker, especially one with a specialized, high-earning job such as a doctor or engineer.

  3. A person who earns their living from a specified activity.

  4. A prostitute.

    euphemistic
    There was this nice lady who flirted with me at the bar, but it turned out that she was a professional.

  5. A reputation known by name.

  6. An expert.

  7. One of four categories of sociologist propounded by Horowitz: a sociologist who is actively concerned with promoting the profession of sociology.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English professhennalle, professhynalle; equivalent to profession + -al.

adj/pɹəˈfɛʃ.ə.nəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[pɹəˈfɛʃ.nəl]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/pɹəˈfeʃ.ə.nəl/Australia, New-Zealand[pɹəˈfeʃ.nəl]Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession.

    The doctor is very professional in his manner.
    You should get professional advice about your tax liability.

  2. Expert.

    broadly

  3. Of an occupation, paid, especially so as to provide a livelihood.

    a professional musician, a professional footballer

  4. Engaging in persistent behaviour that is exaggeratedly implied to be a full-time, paid occupation.

    often · pejorative
    Don't listen to him, he's a professional bullshitter.
    As a professional optimist, I always look on the bright side.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English professhennalle, professhynalle; equivalent to profession + -al.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.