Mentor

How to spell mentor

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mentor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mentor mean?

1. nounAn experienced person who advises and guides someone less experienced over time.
2. verbTo advise and guide a less experienced person over a sustained period.

Mentor in a sentence

• noun

  Her former manager became a trusted mentor during the first year of her career.

• verb

  Volunteers mentor local teenagers through their first job applications.

• noun

  The company pairs each new graduate with a senior mentor for support.

• verb

  Senior staff agree to mentor junior colleagues for at least a year.

Where does mentor come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes straight from a character in Greek literature: in Homer's Odyssey, Mentor was the trusted older friend whom Odysseus left in charge of his household and his son Telemachus while he fought at Troy. The goddess Athena frequently took on Mentor's appearance to offer guidance, so the name became attached to the idea of a wise and faithful adviser. The Greek name itself is often linked to a root meaning 'to think' or 'to counsel', the same family that gives us words about mind and memory. The modern sense, a trusted teacher who guides a less experienced person, was popularised in the early 1700s by the French writer Fenelon in his novel Les Aventures de Telemaque, and English adopted the word from French soon after. Because it began life as a personal name, the spelling stays simple and fixed, ending in the same -or you find in other agent-style nouns like 'counsellor' or 'advisor'.

How the word is built

• Mentor (proper name from Greek myth)
• used as a common noun; the Greek name may derive from a root meaning 'to think' or 'advise' (men-)