Employment
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The occupation or work for which one is used, and often paid. countable, uncountable
"[I]t is certaine no man sees more of the Navye's Transactions than himselfe [the Clerk of the Acts], and possibly may speak as much to the project if required, or else he is a blockhead, and not fitt for that imployment."
- 2 the occupation for which you are paid wordnet
- 3 The act of employing. countable, uncountable
"The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure"
- 4 the act of using wordnet
- 5 The state of being employed. countable, uncountable
"[…] King Henry [VIII] full fraught all thoſe vvith vvealth and revvards, vvhom he retained in his imployment."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 the act of giving someone a job wordnet
- 7 A purpose, a use. countable, uncountable
"This new employment of his time caused no relaxation in his attention to my education."
- 8 the state of being employed or having a job wordnet
- 9 An activity to which one devotes time. countable, uncountable
- 10 The number or percentage of people at work. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"The master plan includes programs to provide employment as well as recreation."
Etymology
From employ (itself from Middle French employer, from Middle French empleier, from Latin implicō (“enfold, involve, be connected with”), itself from in- + plicō (“fold”)) + -ment.
Related phrases
More for "employment"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.