Lecturer

How to spell lecturer

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lecturer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lecturer mean?

1. nounA person who gives talks or formal teaching sessions, especially a teacher at a university or college.

Lecturer in a sentence

• The lecturer posted the seminar notes online after class.

• As a part-time lecturer, she taught two evening modules in economics.

Where does lecturer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb legere, which meant 'to read' or 'to gather'. From it came lectura, meaning 'a reading', because in medieval universities teaching literally meant reading aloud from authoritative texts while students listened and copied. English took 'lecture' through Old French and Anglo-Latin during the 1300s and 1400s, first in the sense of reading or a written text, then narrowing to a formal academic discourse. The agent noun 'lecturer', the person who delivers that discourse, appears in English by the early 1500s, formed simply by adding the familiar -er ending. The same legere root shows up in a surprising family of words, including 'legible', 'lesson', and 'lecture' itself, which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of the word is spelled -ctur-, echoing 'lecture' plus -er rather than the sound you might guess.

How the word is built

• lect (from Latin legere: to read)
• -ure (noun forming)
• -er (one who does)