Definition of "professoriate" [pro•fes•so•ri•ate]

• The rank or office of a professor. (noun)
• College or university professors considered as a group. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The suggestion that the professoriate is about to be de-skilled or at least broken to the Taylorist wheel is not new, but that doesn't make it less apt."
• "As they put it pg. 72, “we would not contest the claim that professors are one of the most liberal occupational groups in American society, or that the professoriate is a Democratic stronghold.”"
• "Another issue is that from what I recall the professoriate is extremely in favor of proactive attempts to race and gender balance the makeup of the students whom they teach, but are far more skeptical of the same considerations being directly inserted into the process of hiring or awarding tenure."