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say it: pruh-FESH-uh-nuhl
professional is an adjective and noun meaning "engaged in a profession or engaging in as a profession or means of livelihood". It carries 8 recorded senses.
engaged in a profession or engaging in as a profession or means of livelihood
“the professional man or woman possesses distinctive qualifications”
“began her professional career after the Olympics”
“professional theater”
“professional football”
“a professional cook”
“professional actors and athletes”
of or relating to or suitable as a profession
“professional organizations”
“a professional field such as law”
characteristic of or befitting a profession or one engaged in a profession
“professional conduct”
“professional ethics”
“a thoroughly professional performance”
of or relating to a profession
“we need professional advice”
“professional training”
“professional equipment for his new office”
engaged in by members of a profession
“professional occupations include medicine and the law and teaching”
a person engaged in one of the learned professions
an athlete who plays for pay
an authority qualified to teach apprentices
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for professional come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.