Junior

How to spell junior

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce junior

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does junior mean?

1. adjectiveLower in rank, position, or length of service; or younger in age.
2. nounA person who is younger than another, or who holds a lower rank or position.

Junior in a sentence

• adjective

  She started as a junior analyst before moving into management.

• noun

  As the office junior, he was given the routine paperwork.

• adjective

  The firm hired three junior solicitors this autumn.

• noun

  She is my junior by several years.

Where does junior come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin iunior, which is the comparative form of iuvenis, meaning 'young'. The literal sense was therefore 'younger', and Romans used it to distinguish a son from a father of the same name, much as we still write 'Jr.' today. English borrowed it in the late 1500s, first as an adjective meaning 'younger' and soon afterwards to mark lower rank or shorter standing, as in a junior clerk or junior officer. The same iuvenis root produces 'juvenile' and, through a different path, 'young' shares the same ancient Indo-European ancestor. The spelling trap is the quiet '-ior' ending, which sounds like 'yer' but must be written i-o-r, the giveaway being its origin as a Latin comparative.

How the word is built

• junior (from Latin iunior, comparative of iuvenis: young), a single comparative form with no separable prefix or suffix in English