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# prof

«prof» in Mova's school dictionary: **Informal short form of «professor»: a teacher of the…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (informal, short for professor: a prof, profs; Prof. as a title)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Informal short form of «professor»: a teacher of the highest rank at a university. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#m1)

2) Prof.: written short form used as a title before a name (Prof. Jane Smith). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories and films, «the Prof» is often a nickname for a clever scientist or inventor character. Real professors teach and do research at universities. In school children rarely use the word; it is informal or a written short form.

### examples

- Prof. Ada Smith is an expert on insects. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x1)
- The students asked their prof for help. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x2)
- In the cartoon, everyone called the inventor «the Prof». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x3)
- A professor teaches at a university. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x4)
- My aunt is a prof of chemistry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x5)
- The prof showed the class a robot she had built. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/#x6)

### note

«Prof» is informal; in writing a title it is «Prof.» (often with a full stop) and «Professor» in full is more polite. In the USA, «professor» is used for many university teachers; in the UK, Ireland and Australia it is only for the most senior ones.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «prof» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/prof/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.