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Professional vs Paraprofessional - What's the difference?

professional | paraprofessional |

As nouns the difference between professional and paraprofessional

is that professional is a person who belongs to a profession while paraprofessional is a person who is trained to assist a professional.

As adjectives the difference between professional and paraprofessional

is that professional is of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession while paraprofessional is of or relating to this assistance.

professional

English

Noun

(wikipedia professional) (en noun)
  • A person who belongs to a profession
  • A person who earns his living from a specified activity
  • An expert.
  • * 1934 , edition, ISBN 0553278193, page 97:
  • I have learned that there is a person attached to a golf club called a professional'. Find out who fills that post at the Green Meadow Club; invite the ' professional , urgently, to dine with us this evening.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession.
  • *
  • *:His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill;.
  • That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood.
  • (lb) Expert.
  • Derived terms

    * non-professional, nonprofessional * professionalism * unprofessional

    paraprofessional

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who is trained to assist a professional.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or relating to this assistance.