adjunct

/ˌæˈdʒʌŋkt/

/ˈædʒəŋkt/

Other forms: adjuncts

Adjunct means something added on, but not part of the whole. An adjunct professor is someone who is hired by a college to teach but isn't a full member of the faculty.

This is a word you can figure out by taking it apart. From ad- "to" and -junct "join" (think "junction"), you can see that this is about joining something to another. "During lunch, Tim always sat at the girls' lacrosse-team lunch table, and they joked that he was an adjunct member of the team."

Definitions of adjunct

1. noun

   something added to another thing but not an essential part of it
   types:

   accompaniment, complement

   something added to complete or embellish or make perfect

   type of:

   inessential, nonessential

   anything that is not essential
2. noun

   a person who is an assistant or subordinate to another
   type of:

   associate

   a person who joins with others in some activity or endeavor
3. noun

   a construction that can be used to extend the meaning of a word or phrase but is not one of the main constituents of a sentence
   types:

   parenthetical, parenthetical expression

   an expression in parentheses

   type of:

   construction, expression, grammatical construction

   a group of words that form a constituent of a sentence and are considered as a single unit
4. adjective

   furnishing added support
   synonyms: accessory, adjuvant, ancillary, appurtenant, auxiliary

   supportive

   furnishing support or assistance
5. adjective

   of or relating to a person who is subordinate to another
   synonyms: assistant

   low-level, subordinate

   lower in rank or importance