mentor

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A wise and trusted counselor or teacher.
verb
  1. To act as someone's mentor.
name
  1. Odysseus's trusted counselor. He was assigned the responsibility of raising Odysseus's son Telemachus while Odysseus was away fighting in Troy.
  2. A male given name from Ancient Greek.

Pronunciation

men'tôr men'tər /ˈmɛn.tɔː/ /ˈmɛn.toə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mentor.wav /ˈmɛn.toɹ/ /ˈmɛn.tɚ/ /ˈmen.toː/

Word forms

mentor mentors mentoring mentored

Etymology

From French mentor, from Ancient Greek Μέντωρ (Méntōr, “Mentor”), a mythological character in the Odyssey, whose name, a historical name from Ancient Greece, shares the same root as English mind. Cognate to Sanskrit मन्तृ (mantṛ, “advisor, counselor”) and Latin monitor (“one who admonishes”), and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *monéyeti (compare Latin moneō (“to warn”), causative form of *men- (“to think”).

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