Trainee

How to spell trainee

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trainee

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trainee mean?

1. nounA person who is learning and being supervised in a job or skill.

Trainee in a sentence

• The new trainee shadowed a senior nurse for the first month.

• As a trainee accountant, she studied for exams while working full time.

Where does trainee come from?

Language of origin: French

This word joins the verb 'train' to the suffix '-ee', a pairing that emerged in English during the nineteenth century. The verb 'train' came through Old French 'trainer', meaning 'to drag, draw out, or lead along', which traces back to Latin 'trahere', 'to pull or draw'; the sense of drawing a person along into a skill gave us the modern idea of instruction. The suffix '-ee' was borrowed from the French passive past participle ending '-e', and in English it consistently marks the person on the receiving end of an action, as in 'employee', 'payee', and 'addressee'. So a trainee is literally 'one who is trained', the recipient of training, set against the 'trainer' who gives it. That deliberate '-ee' versus '-er' contrast is exactly the spelling point worth remembering: the doubled final 'ee' marks the person receiving the training.

How the word is built

• train (to instruct, drill)
• -ee (one who receives the action)