employee
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does employee mean? An employee is someone who gets paid to work for a person or company. Workers don’t need to work full time to be considered employees—they simply need to be paid to work by an employer (the person or business that pays them). The term employee is sometimes used to distinguish contract workers from full employees (who often earn additional benefits), but in this example, both types of workers are considered employees in the general sense. Example: My company has more than 500 employees.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of employee
First recorded in 1825–35; from French employé “employed,” past participle of employer to employ; see -ee
Explanation
An employee is someone who's hired to do a particular job for pay. If you like to shop in a certain store, you might also enjoy being an employee there. You can see the verb employ, meaning "put to use," in employee. You can employ a pen in writing a letter, just as a grocery store might employ workers to collect the shopping carts from the parking lot. A person who is put to work is an employee. Employee implies that the worker reports to a boss, and it's most commonly used for non-executives who work for a salary.
Vocabulary lists containing employee
"Dogs at Work"
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Vocabulary for the Naturalization Interview
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Units 6–7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The former employee has company shares worth $21.4 million at the IPO price SpaceX set last week, which represents 93% of his household’s investible net worth.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Employees can sometimes also get more shares through an employee stock-purchase program that typically lets workers buy up to $25,000 worth at a discount of up to 15% each year.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Phil, the dorky and faintly sinister middle-aged employee of Async, explains to Mary that his company used to make MRI machines.
From Salon • Jun. 8, 2026
The human resources employee in her 50s found the pontiff "extraordinary" during Saturday's prayer vigil with 500,000 mostly young people, seeing a "very positive message of joy".
From Barron's • Jun. 7, 2026
Once Jason had said his thank-yous and farewells, he opened the employee door to exit the building and found himself walking through his own front door.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
