# junior

Pronunciation: US say "JOO-nee-ur" /ˈd͡ʒuniɚ/; UK say "JOO-nee-uh" /ˈd͡ʒuːniə/

## Adjective

1. Low in rank, or holding a subordinate role, job, or position.
   - Simple: Having a lower rank or a less important job than other people.
   - _He held a junior position in the department for several years._
   - _Junior officers report to those above them in the chain of command._
2. Younger, used especially to tell apart two people who share the same name.
   - Simple: Being the younger one, especially when two people share the same name.
   - _Whenever both brothers visited, we spoke of the junior Holmes to avoid confusion._
   - _The junior Adams entered politics decades after his elder namesake._
5. Relating to the third academic year of a four-year high school (eleventh grade) or university. *(US)*
   - Simple: Belonging to the third year of US high school or college.
   - _She earned top grades throughout her junior year._
   - _The junior curriculum introduces more advanced coursework._
7. Relating to someone younger, or to an earlier stage of a person's life.
   - Simple: Belonging to a young person, or to an earlier part of someone's life.
   - _Looking back, she found her junior ambitions rather charming._
   - _The diary captured his junior hopes from those early years._
8. Relating to a league or competition limited to players below a certain age or experience level. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: Used for a sports league or contest only for younger or less experienced players.
   - _She coached a junior soccer squad for three seasons._
   - _The junior division has stricter age limits than the open category._
11. Relating to the latter half of primary school education. *(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: Used for the later years of primary school in the UK.
   - _He teaches the junior years at the village school._
   - _The junior curriculum builds on what children learn as infants._

## Noun

3. A name suffix placed after a son's full name when his father has the same name.
   - Simple: A word added after a son's name when he has the same name as his father.
   - _His diploma read 'Michael Brennan junior' in full._
   - _They named the baby after his dad, so he became Samuel Reed junior._
4. Someone in the third year of a four-year course at a high school, college, or university. *(Philippines, US)*
   - Simple: A student in the third year of a US high school or college.
   - _Most juniors begin preparing for college entrance exams that year._
   - _He made the varsity team as a junior._
6. A person who is younger than another.
   - Simple: Someone who is younger than another person.
   - _He may be my junior, but he has traveled far more than I have._
   - _The juniors looked to the older relatives for advice._
9. A range of clothing sizes cut for girls and younger women.
   - Simple: A clothing size made for girls and younger women.
   - _Most of the tops on that rack come in junior sizes._
   - _She typically wears a junior rather than a misses' size._
10. A barrister of junior rank, especially one assisting a senior barrister on a case.
   - Simple: A less senior lawyer who assists a leading lawyer on a court case.
   - _She worked as a junior on several high-profile trials._
   - _The leading counsel relied on his junior to cross-check the evidence._
12. An older primary-school pupil, whether in the upper years of a primary school or at a separate junior school. *(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: A child in the older years of a UK primary school.
   - _She teaches the juniors in the mornings and the infants after lunch._
   - _As a junior, he walked to the bigger classrooms each day._

## Verb

13. To work in a junior role on a task, project, or case.
   - Simple: To work on a project or case in a lower-ranking role.
   - _Trainees junior on major matters before leading their own._
   - _He was happy to junior on the deal and watch how the partners worked._
14. To have more advanced students, known as juniors, assist in instructing beginners.
   - Simple: To have more advanced students help teach the beginners in a class.
   - _The studio juniors its beginners, pairing each one with a brown belt for the first weeks of class._
   - _With forty newcomers enrolled, the chief instructor chose to junior the beginners rather than hire extra staff._

## Origin

Borrowed from Latin junior, a contraction of iuvenior ("younger"), the comparative of iuvenis ("young"); related to juvenile.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/junior (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).