staff.
A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
Meaning & usage
A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking.
A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.
People employed by a business or other organisation.
The company employed 10 new members of staff this month.
The company has taken on 1600 more highly-paid staff.
A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.
A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.
a constable's staff
A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.
The rung of a ladder.
A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.
An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.
The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.
An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.
A form of token once used, in combination with a ticket, for safe train movements between two points on a single line.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf (“letter of the alphabet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Danish stav, Swedish stav. Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.
To supply (a business, volunteer organization, etc.) with employees or staff members.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf (“letter of the alphabet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Danish stav, Swedish stav. Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.
Misspelling of staph.
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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.