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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Stockwell, who now works part-time for Stockwell Elastomerics, opted for a slightly different method of transferring ownership to the stuff – an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or ESOP.
From BBC • Jun. 14, 2026
In a statement, UC Associate Vice President for Systemwide Employee and Labor Relations Missy Matella said the deal “recognizes the important work these employees do every day across UC’s campuses and health centers.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
In a video, Dr. Becky marks Employee Appreciation Week by bemoaning how uncelebrated parents’ wins often are.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
Read more: Employee buyouts like Microsoft’s could become more common.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 27, 2026
So we all went to the Annual Ballard Paper Mill Harvest-Time Employee Picnic, because my father wanted to win a baseball signed by Babe Ruth.
From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt
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.
