adjunct professor

"adjunct professor" means a college professor who is employed part-time or for a limited time, is junior to a full professor, or is otherwise not eligible for tenure. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.

"adjunct professor" is informal English meaning a college professor who is employed part-time or for a limited time, is junior to a full professor, or is otherwise not eligible for tenure. It is mainly used in North American English. A more formal or neutral equivalent would be something like "a college professor who is employed part-time or for a limited time" expressed in standard vocabulary. A common mistake is to assume "adjunct professor" can replace its standard equivalent in every register; keep it for spoken or casual situations and use the formal form in writing.